The board of the market operator Nasdaq OMX has cut the 2012 bonus of the company’s chief executive, Robert Greifeld, by 62 percent, as a result of the botched Facebook initial public offering last May.
Overall, Mr. Greifeld earned $8.9 million last year, including salary, stock awards and a “non-equity incentive plan compensation†of $1.35 million, down from a 2011 bonus of $3.59 million. In 2011, he received $7.6 million in total compensation.
The board also reduced the bonus of Anna Ewing, executive vice president of global technology solutions, the company’s top market technology executive, by 53 percent, to $574,125.
In a securities filing on Thursday, the company said that the management compensation committee and the board “explicitly considered the Facebook I.P.O. in connection with their review and determination of these reduced payouts. â€
The May 18, 2012 trading debut of Facebook shares was the most anticipated market event in more than a decade, generating intense interest among retail investors as well as on Wall Street. But the start of trading was marred by what Nasdaq calls “systems issues,†including a surprising opening delay and missing trade execution messages. Amid the chaos of the day, the electronic market had to fill out out orders by hand for a spell.
The market operator has pledged to pay $62 million to member firms who suffered losses during trading that day as a result of computer malfunctions.
In a statement last summer, Mr. Greifeld said: “We deeply regret the problems encountered during the initial public offering of Facebook, We failed to meet our own high standards based on our long history of providing outstanding technology to our members and exchange customers. We have learned from this experience and we will continue to improve our trading platforms.’’
