The boss of Roblox Corp. received a pay package that the videogame company valued at $233 million last year, instantly putting him in the ranks of the country’s top-paid chief executives, a Monday Securities filing showed.
David Baszucki, co-founder and chief executive officer of Roblox, had received just $6.8 million in 2020. Most of his 2021 package is made up of restricted stock dependent on the company meeting certain milestones, a common retention tool that underscores how some executives can end up with big payouts.
Mr. Baszucki’s compensation approaches that of the biggest pay package so far disclosed for 2021 for S&P 500 companies, that of Discovery Inc. CEO David Zaslav, at $247 million. At least two other public companies have reported bigger pay packages for their CEOs: more than $500 million each for KKR & Co.’s co-CEOs, and $308 million for Endeavor Group Holdings Inc.’s Ari Emanuel. Like Roblox, KKR and Endeavor aren’t in the S&P 500.
Roblox shares were first traded in March 2021 at around $65 when they were first offered on the market through a direct listing. They almost doubled in price by November amid the hope the company would benefit from rising interest in the metaverse. Its shares have slid since then.
Mr. Baszucki’s equity award is designed to vest—or become fully his—over seven years if Roblox shares average at or above a series of target prices for at least 90 days, starting at $165 after early March 2023 and continuing through $375 a share, the company’s annual proxy statement says. If the initial price target isn’t reached by March 2028, he would ultimately receive no shares under the grant. Roblox shares have traded as high as $141.60 and closed at $50.02 on Monday.
Last month Intel Corp. disclosed in a regulatory filing that its chief executive officer, Pat Gelsinger, received compensation last year valued at nearly $180 million, pegged to performance targets intended to dramatically improve its stock price.
Overall pay increases for U.S. CEOs have been gaining momentum. Median pay rose to $14.2 million last year for the leaders of S&P 500 companies from a record $13.4 million for the same companies a year earlier, based on disclosures through Friday evening, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of pay data for more than half the index from MyLogIQ LLC.
Roblox operates a free online platform with millions of games made by its own users. Mr. Baszucki started building it in the early 2000s with fellow programmer Erik Cassel and it launched in 2006. Mr. Cassel died from cancer in 2013.
The company, which went public last year, was a big beneficiary of the pandemic’s sheltering restrictions. It has said that the health crisis had an outsize positive impact on its business and that it is working to drive growth by appealing to older and untapped demographics.
Equity awards like Mr. Baszucki’s can fluctuate considerably in value, especially over multiyear performance periods. The award valued at $232.2 million when he received it in February last year had risen to $1.2 billion by year’s end, with the company’s share price at $103, Roblox said in its securities filing.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text
