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The company disclosed in a filing on Thursday that Schulman was awarded $22 million in compensation for 2022, including approximately $20,2 million in stock awards.
After failing to fulfill its financial goals, PayPal Holdings Inc. reduced the compensation of its departing CEO Dan Schulman by 32% for the previous year.
Schulman was awarded $22 million in compensation for 2022, including approximately $20,2 million in stock awards, according to a Thursday filing by the San Jose, California-based company. This compares to $32 million one year ago.
According to the board compensation committee, the company failed to meet its goals for critical metrics, including revenue, adjusted operating margin, and net new active users. Nonetheless, Schulman was lauded for guiding PayPal “through a challenging period of macroeconomic uncertainty, geopolitical instability, slowing e-commerce growth, and a return to pre-pandemic consumer behaviors.”
Schulman announced in February his intention to retire at the end of the year, and the board stated it would hire a search firm to identify his replacement. In the midst of a slowdown in growth across platforms and a months-long stock decline, he is departing the payments behemoth.
Thursday’s closing price increase of 2.8% to $75.52 had little effect on PayPal shares in late trading. This contributed to the stock’s 6% gain for the year, compared to the 5% decline of the 73 companies comprising the S&P 500 Financials Index.
At its annual meeting later next month, when shareholders will vote on the proposed compensation for Schulman and other senior executives, the company will face a number of shareholder proposals concerning its practices.
The Tara Health Foundation urged shareholders to support a proposal that would require PayPal to publish a report on its efforts to fulfill requests from law enforcement officials seeking to enforce state laws that criminalize abortions. PayPal urged shareholders to vote against the proposal, noting that officials can “only obtain customer information pursuant to proper legal service, and the legitimacy of each request is thoroughly evaluated prior to the disclosure of information.”
Another proposal would require the company to clarify its decision-making process behind account suspensions and closures, given that PayPal has been accused of restricting access to its services for lawful sex workers.
“PayPal consistently employs objective, narrowly tailored policies to address account suspension and closure, and those policies are based on ensuring the safety of our customers and protecting PayPal’s legitimate business interests,” the company responded, urging shareholders to reject the proposal.
