Former RIM bosses paid millions for their exits
Posted Jun 14, 2012 01:02:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The former co-CEOs of Research in Motion are getting a combined $12 million for leaving their roles in the company.
According to a document filed with securities regulators, Balsillie’s package includes close to $8 million in salary and compensation after completely leaving his role at the company.
Lazaridis will be paid about $4 million. He stays on as a member of the board and will also get his own office, executive assistant and car and driver for two years, worth a combined $733,000
In an emailed statement, a RIM spokesman told 570 News, “Mike and Jim built RIM into an international company with 77 million users and grew revenues from $294 million to just under $20 billion. They revolutionized the way people communicate. The MIC makes clear that these and other factors were taken into consideration by the Board. In the end, however, Mike and Jim elected transition packages that reflect industry-standard payments for senior executives. Mike received an office and a small staff to support his role as Vice Chair and Chair of the Board’s Innovation Committee rather than cash compensation.”
Meanwhile, activist investor and Chairman and CEO of Jaguar Financial, Vic Alboini, says the payments aren’t unusual. He tells 570 News, “typically, when you leave a company in a senior position…their employment contracts would provide for a termination payment.”
Alboini says he is concerned about Lazaridis remaining on RIM’s board. “What is not appropriate, is to have directors on the board who are necessarily focused on the friendship with Mr. Lazaridis,” he explains. “What you want on the board is…independent, strong thinkers who will tell it like it is.”
He adds that he thinks Lazaridis should step down within a year.
