Tech boss who made £450m last year – even though his company has never made a profit
THE 27-year-old boss of a mobile phone app that has never made a profit has received a £457million pay deal – the third highest ever.
Evan Spiegel, the tech guru who founded Snapchat less than seven years ago, picked up a massive one-time stock award after floating his company on the stock market last year.
Spiegel, who is married to Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr, becomes the second highest-paid businessman on record – surpassing even the pay deals handed to other Silicon Valley bosses such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.
The only person to have surpassed his pay packet is the boss of US hedge fund Och-Ziff, Daniel Och, who picked up £658million and £850million in 2007 and 2008 respectively.
Yet incredibly, Spiegel’s firm Snapchat – which trades as Snap – has never made a profit. The firm has made a loss of £250million in the past three months and has never been in the black during its time in existence.
Snapchat is a picture messaging app in which users send images that can only be viewed by the recipient for a limited amount of time.
Spiegel founded Snapchat in 2011 as a student at Stanford University. It was formed during a party with two of his friends, one of whom was later forced out of the company after falling out with Spiegel.
It floated on the New York Stock Exchange last March, and shares immediately soared – however, as losses grew they have now fallen back below the level they originally traded at.
Spiegel’s income comprises pay and other compensation of around £1million, and share-based awards of £456million. He and his 34-year-old wife are expecting their first child together.
Spiegel was born in Los Angeles and raised by Christian parents. According to Kerr, Spiegel is a traditionalist and believes in no sex before marriage.
The Snapchat billionaire and his Australian wife married in front of fewer than 50 guests last year following a two-year romance.
They live in Los Angeles’ affluent Brentwood neighbourhood in a £9million property once owned by Star Wars actor Harrison Ford.
Kerr was previously married to Lord of the Rings star Orlando Bloom with whom she has a seven-year-old son. The pay deal handed to Spiegel is almost ten times that of Britain’s best paid boss of a public company – WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell earned £48.1million last year. City & Finance – Page 73