By Don Clark
International Business Machines Corp. said Chief Executive
Virginia Rometty will receive a $3.6 million bonus for her
performance in 2014, despite annual declines in profit and revenue
at the computing giant.
The company also set a $13.3 million value on the long-term
incentive stock awards that Ms. Rometty could receive for 2015
through 2017, up from the $12.75 million award value IBM reported a
year ago. The actual amount of stock units she will receive will
vary based on the company's performance, IBM said in a filing with
the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A year ago, Ms. Rometty and other members of her senior
management team opted to forgo annual bonuses because of
disappointing performance in 2013.
Ms. Rometty's base salary for 2015 was due to increase by 6.7%
to $1.6 million and her annual bonus target was set at $5 million,
according to the filing.
IBM reported on Jan. 20 that net income from continuing
operations in 2014 declined 7% to $15.8 billion on revenue that
fell 6% to $92.8 billion. IBM's stock declined 14% in 2014.
The company's Friday filing didn't include a rationale for the
boost in Ms. Rometty's compensation. But the company has pointed to
signs of improved momentum in several parts of its business,
including operations based on cloud, mobile and social
networking.
In addition, under Ms. Rometty, IBM has exited businesses that
weren't contributing to profits, including manufacturing
semiconductors and commodity-style server systems.
Write to Don Clark at don.clark@wsj.com
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