Tasers are having a moment... Nationwide focus on police conduct has departments buying up Tasers, body cameras, and software to upload the footage. Taser inventor Axon Enterprises makes all that, and just granted CEO/co-founder Patrick Smith $246M in compensation — 20x the pay of a normal (still very rich) big company CEO. But read the fine print...
Dangling million dollar carrots... The board wants Smith to capitalize on the Taser era. So they've set up performance-based targets that will turn his stock options into real dollars:
- Stock price: All the Axon shares out there are worth $3.8B total right now. There are 12 "market cap" milestones that will convert his options to cash money as it hits points on the way up to $13.5B.
- Revenues: They're currently at $400M. If it reaches $2B, Smith will score 8 separate stock option bonuses.
- Profits: Yup, there are 8 more prizes based on profitability targets.
Smith's living on the edge... Although technically (based on accounting rules) he got "paid" $246M this month, it was all in stock options — Those have no value unless they "vest" (aka hit those goals above). His current salary is just $24K. He doesn't get rich unless his company does too.