back to article Microsoft shareholders wave through CEO Satya Nadella's massive pay package

A revolt by shareholders at Microsoft's annual general meeting over CEO Satya Nadella wages failed to materialize today – and his executive pay package was approved. Company advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services said it had significant concerns over the size of Nadella's package, which it estimated was worth over $ …

  1. Khaptain Silver badge

    Future with Nadella

    >The CEO also promised great things for the forthcoming Windows 10 operating system launch.

    Forget the "great things" and just add "security" on a serious level. Make Windows 7 a little bit lighter on resources ,a la W8, throw in a Linux level of security, give the interface a less flat, less blinding my eyes look ( same goes for Office). and everyone will be satisfied.

    I would rather see improvements on the existing rather than more poor efforts to create new. In the workplace we need solid, not shiny...

    >expanded on his cloud strategy to get Microsoft apps on every internet-equipped device on the planet.

    This is going to be an area where they will fail miserably. MS Embedded anything has never managed to win anyones hearts, and certainely not whilst the likes of Linux remains free...

    Question : Nadella will receive $90 million per year, what exactly is required of a man for whom the shareholders are prepared to pay almost $2 million per week ?

    1. Gray
      Trollface

      Re: Future with Nadella

      Question : Nadella will receive $90 million per year, what exactly is required of a man for whom the shareholders are prepared to pay almost $2 million per week ?

      Obviously the shareholders expect Nadella to "stay the course" which means MS will continue to be the most successful corporation not only in American, but in global history, with a level of product innovation and brilliance that is unmatched by any measure. He is expected to continue record-breaking profitability, shareholder value, and ever-advancing market gains. And in addition to all that, he is demonstrably less toxic than Ballmer. What more could a shareholder ask?

      The rumours that he walks to work across the surface of Lake Washington are somewhat exaggerated.

    2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
      FAIL

      Re: Future with Nadella

      expanded on his cloud strategy to get Microsoft apps on every internet-equipped device on the planet.

      Talk about making pigs fly. Does anyone in their right mind even remotely think that this is doable?

      Does you leccy meter that sends your reading to the mothership need a Word Interface? Does it even need to run Windows of any shape or form? Does it need an SQLServer Client or even client access to CRM, BizTalk or any other MS product?

      My current smart meter does not. I know that it runs Linux.

      Does he think that every Router on the planet is going to have some MS software in it?

      The list of area where MS will fail is very long. Perhaps he should become a Politician. They always promise stuff that is clearly impossible to deliver (if you have half a working brain that is) but they make great sound-bites don't they?

      1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

        Re: Future with Nadella

        expanded on his cloud strategy to get Microsoft apps on every internet-equipped device on the planet.

        "Talk about making pigs fly. Does anyone in their right mind even remotely think that this is doable?"

        I do.

        "Does you leccy meter that sends your reading to the mothership need a Word Interface? Does it even need to run Windows of any shape or form? Does it need an SQLServer Client or even client access to CRM, BizTalk or any other MS product?"

        No, but it probably could report it's data back to Azure, or run a little Microsoft Research-developed micro OS (they have a couple) that are efficient, small, and designed for embedded devices. I think one of them even runs in less than 2MB of RAM.

        "My current smart meter does not. I know that it runs Linux."

        Congrats?

        "Does he think that every Router on the planet is going to have some MS software in it?"

        Why couldn't it?

        "The list of area where MS will fail is very long."

        I can say this about (almost) every OS or software company, if we're being honest.

        "Perhaps he should become a Politician. They always promise stuff that is clearly impossible to deliver (if you have half a working brain that is) but they make great sound-bites don't they?"

        He's the CEO of one of hte most important corporations on the planet. He is a politician, now.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Future with Nadella

      It's difficult to retrofit a unix security model onto Windows.

      Each release nudges in that direction to minimise backward compatibility issues.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Future with Nadella

        "It's difficult to retrofit a unix security model onto Windows."

        It potentially isn't for Microsoft - you would just remove all the Windows advanced security features - and leave the POSIX ones that it already has - Windows is already fully POSIX compliant. The question would be why would you want to.

    4. Malagabay

      Re: Future with Nadella

      Question : ... what exactly is required of a man for whom the shareholders are prepared to pay almost $2 million per week ?

      Answer: Probably just keep the share buyback scheme rolling.

      Share Buyback First - Share Options Second

      Cloud Third - Mobile Third - Diversity Third - Windows 10 Third.....

      ...

      Lost in the discussion of Microsoft's dividend is its share buyback program.

      That's unfortunate, because its buyback program has been impressive in its own right.

      Microsoft has returned nearly $73 billion to investors in the last five years:

      $40 billion in share buybacks and $32.5 billion in common dividends.

      http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/09/23/3-reasons-why-microsoft-is-a-top-dividend-stock.aspx

      ...

      *MICROSOFT SETS $40 BILLION BUYBACK, BOOSTS DIVIDEND 22%

      http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-17/microsoft-renews-stock-buyback-program-raises-dividend-5-cents

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Future with Nadella

      "throw in a Linux level of security,"

      So you mean that they should times the number of vulnerabilities by a factor of ~ ten and take longer to fix them from being publically known - and don't fully integration test them - and release them on a random schedule? And remove security features like constrained delegation and replace them with insecure kludges like SUDO?

      " MS Embedded anything has never managed to win anyones hearts"

      Apart from in most ATMs, many medical devices, cash registers, POS systems, etc. etc.

      "certainely not whilst the likes of Linux remains free..."

      Enterprise Linux like SUSE and Redhat is not free - it's actually MORE expensive than Windows! And even for a free distro - it's only really free if your time is of no value...

      1. Hans 1
        Boffin

        Re: Future with Nadella

        >>" MS Embedded anything has never managed to win anyones hearts"

        >Apart from in most ATMs, many medical devices, cash registers, POS systems, etc. etc.

        Define "embedded", cause all your examples are PC's hooked up to specialized devices ... bulky, expensive, overkill, security/update nightmare ...

        You should have said that Nadella meant "ms apps", such as skype, minecraft ... all the stuff they purchased for more than 10 000 times the actual value.

        As for Suse/RedHat support, if you consider the apps that ship with it, which of course are also supported, it is way cheaper than an Office license alone, without counting the Windows OS, CALS, Server licenses.

        Then you have Ubuntu support, which is cheaper than windows support and has all the apps included as well ...

        Seriously, though, nobody really needs "Linux support" because it is open source software - you need a patch? Get it! Not released yet ? Download the latest sources, compile, enjoy.

    6. Fungus Bob

      Re: Future with Nadella

      "what exactly is required of a man for whom the shareholders are prepared to pay almost $2 million per week ?"

      blowjobs, maybe...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ballmer wearing a Microsoft Band? can it handle the monkey dance?

  3. John 104

    Nice

    He gets 4.5 million and no one bats an eye at the layoffs that happened over the summer...

    1. Gareth Gouldstone
      Unhappy

      Re: Nice

      Privatise the profit, socialise the losses. Except in this case they are indirectly paying his salary and bonus from the welfare budget, so guess they have anti-socialised the profit...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What a disgrace

    Sell defective products, aka consumer fraud to enrich Satya with $90 million in annual compensation.

  5. Johan Bastiaansen

    It's karma

    It must be karma.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like