"If it seems like more CEOs are asking for-and getting-so-called "moonshot" pay packages, well, they are, as I reported in a recent feature for Fortune. A moonshot ties CEO compensation almost entirely to aggressive, seemingly impossible targets over five to 10 years. The upshot is often billions in compensation and slices of company ownership. But in the meantime, the CEO gets almost nothing."
"Taser stun gun and body camera company Axon Enterprise awarded its CEO Rick Smith a carbon copy of Musk's deal in 2018 at a smaller magnitude. Smith blew the lights out and last year earned compensation valued at $165 billion after growing the company's market cap from $2.5 billion to $13.5 billion. Smith even brought his entire workforce along with him by sharing some of his pay with employees, negotiating a deal where $88 million in stock went to the lowest-paid workers at Axon."
More CEOs are receiving moonshot pay packages that tie compensation almost entirely to aggressive, seemingly impossible targets over five to ten years. These plans can yield billions in compensation and slices of company ownership while offering little immediate pay. Examples include Elon Musk's two moonshots, one award rescinded after a legal challenge, and Axon Enterprise CEO Rick Smith's 2018 plan that coincided with substantial market-cap growth and extraordinary compensation, including $88 million in stock shared with lower-paid employees. The trend is expanding beyond founder-CEOs to founder-anointed successors, raising concerns about concentrated shareholder risk.
Read at Fortune
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