BlackBerryBB.T -1.03% is saying goodbye to three top executives Monday and will hand them $6.8 million on the way out the door.
In a release Monday morning, the battered Canadian smartphone maker said Chief Operating Officer Kristian Tear, Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben, and Chief Financial Officer Brian Bidulka would be leaving the company.
Mr. Bidulka, who said he will stay on as an adviser for the rest of the year, will receive the largest exit package –$3 million. That includes two years of his salary worth $1.2 million, plus stock options and retirement savings. He joined BlackBerry in 2005.
Mr. Boulben will receive $2.3 million, and Mr. Tear will receive roughly $1.5 million based upon SEC filings and the current value of BlackBerry’s stock.
Messrs. Tear and Boulben worked at BlackBerry for just a year and a half. Both executives joined BlackBerry in May 2012. Mr. Tear joined BlackBerry from Sony Mobile Communications. Mr. Boulben joined from LightSquared, the wireless satellite company that filed for bankruptcy protection in May 2012.
BlackBerry’s board of directors voted on the executive packages during the company’s July meeting and was approved by shareholders. BlackBerry declined to comment beyond the SEC filings.
The latest shake-up in BlackBerry’s executive suite comes after the smartphone maker called off a $4.7 billion tentative deal to sell itself to Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. in early November and instead said it would continue as a public company. At the time, BlackBerry replaced CEO Thorsten Heins with John Chen, former chief executive of enterprise software company Sybase Inc.
The severance packages for all of BlackBerry’s executives were far less than what they would have received if BlackBerry had successfully executed a sale.
Via: CANADA REAL TIME
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