Amazon executive Andy Jassy is set to be handed a stock package worth more than $200m when he takes over from Jeff Bezos as chief executive on Monday.
In a regulatory filing on Friday, the company said it had approved the 61,000-share plan — to vest over the next 10 years — and elected the 53-year-old to the company’s board of directors.
Jassy has been at Amazon since 1997, and is stepping up from his role as chief executive of AWS, Amazon’s cloud computing arm, which he has led since its inception in 2006.
He will take the helm on July 5, the 27th anniversary of the company’s founding, in what will be Amazon’s first-ever leadership transition.
Bezos will become executive chair, and has said he plans to dedicate more time to personal endeavours, such as space travel and his ownership of The Washington Post.
Amazon’s stock ended the week priced at $3,510.98, valuing Jassy’s award at just over $214m. However, the value could be considerably higher once fully vested: in the past 10 years, Amazon’s stock price has increased by more than 1,500 per cent. Its market capitalisation currently stands at $1.77tn.
Jassy’s award comes in addition to the 88,538 shares he already holds, according to S&P Capital IQ, and 48,756 that had yet to vest by the end of 2020.
The holding already made Jassy the second-largest individual shareholder at the company, behind Bezos, whose stake is worth $176bn.
Amazon did not outline any performance targets in relation to the award. A company spokesman declined to comment.
Hefty stock grants are typical for Big Tech executives stepping into top jobs. In 2012 Apple awarded Tim Cook 1m in restricted stock units, valued at the time at $376m, as he took over from the late Steve Jobs.
In 2019 Sundar Pichai was awarded $276m worth of shares and options in Google owner Alphabet, partly dependent on hitting performance targets.
Satya Nadella, who was appointed chief executive of Microsoft in 2014, received $59m, also performance-based.
Additional reporting by Richard Waters in San Francisco
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