Bits Blog: Rich Payday for New Zynga Chief

Don Mattrick ran Microsoft’s Xbox business. Zynga tossed in a $5 million signing bonus for him to become its new chief executive.

There is nothing virtual about the currency that Zynga’s new chief executive, Don A. Mattrick, will get for taking the helm of the troubled social games company.

In a filing with securities regulators on Wednesday afternoon, Zynga said that Mr. Mattrick will receive a compensation package worth around $50 million over the next several years, and perhaps more if he succeeds in turning around the company. That will buy Mr. Mattrick a lot more than the imaginary money Zynga doles out to its gamers so they can buy fake tractors and seeds for their virtual farms.

Zynga found many different ways to pay Mr. Mattrick, the filing shows. There is a $1 million base salary, which will be augmented by an annual bonus of two to four times his salary, or $2 million to $4 million. Zynga is tossing in a $5 million signing bonus as well.

The biggest part of the package, though, is a “make-whole grant” of restricted stock worth $25 million to make up for the compensation he is forfeiting by leaving Microsoft, where he ran the Xbox games business. Mr. Mattrick, who is scheduled to start at Zynga on Monday, needs
to stay there for three years to collect this grant in its entirety.

Zynga is also making an “inducement grant” of restricted stock and options to Mr. Mattrick that he will collect in full after staying at the company for five years. This grant has a total target value of $15 million.

To give Mr. Mattrick an extra incentive to perform at Zynga, the company said it would make additional annual equity grants starting in 2014. Those grants will be worth about $7 million a year.