Robert Greifeld, the chief executive officer of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., received 18 percent more in compensation for 2012 even as his bonus was reduced due to the mishandling of the Facebook Inc. initial public offering.
Greifeld’s total pay including salary, incentives and stock awards was $8.9 million, up from $7.6 million in 2011, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. His cash bonus fell 62 percent to $1.35 million, in part because the compensation committee reduced it by $542,100 after the Facebook IPO.
Nasdaq, the second-largest operator of U.S. equity exchanges, plans to pay $62 million to member firms that lost money last May after a computer malfunction led to confusion about whether brokers and their customers owned Facebook shares or not. Anna Ewing, Nasdaq’s executive vice president in charge of global technology, had her bonus cut by $263,625 in connection with the offering, the New York-based company said.
“The management compensation committee may, in its sole discretion, reduce some or all of the amount that would otherwise be payable with respect to an award,” the filing said. “The committee and board explicitly considered the Facebook IPO in connection with their review and determination of these reduced payouts.”
Greifeld’s stock grant reflects terms of a February 2012 employment contract that cited his success building Nasdaq into a company that runs exchanges around the world and provides technology globally. His base salary of $1 million has been the same since 2006, the filing said.
Nasdaq Shares
Nasdaq’s stock has climbed every year since 2010 and has rallied 17 percent this year, beating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index’s 12 percent increase. Earnings have topped analyst forecasts for eight of the last nine quarters, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Computer systems used to establish Facebook’s opening price on May 18 were overwhelmed by order cancellations and updates during the “biggest IPO cross in the history of mankind,” Greifeld said two days after the offering. Nasdaq’s systems fell into a “loop” that kept the company from opening the shares on time and order confirmations to firms were delayed.
“This was not our finest hour,” Greifeld said in a May 20 call with reporters.
