Again with the financial-planning perk, this time Zuck
Facebook IPO filing reveals $90,850 perk
By Paul McNamara on Thu, 02/02/12 - 5:02pm.
As the press continues digging through documents associated with Facebook's filing for an initial public stock offering, one number in particular caught my eye: Facebook the company doled out $90,850 last year to founder Mark Zuckerberg so that Zuckerberg could acquire professional financial and estate planning services.
We touched on this topic just recently as it applied to Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs.
Now there are at least a couple of ways to look at that $90,850 Facebook conveyed to Zuckerberg:
One is that a guy whose stake in the company is estimated to be worth about $25 billion sure as heck needs a lot of financial and estate planning advice, even if he is only 27 years old.
Another is that a fellow sitting on a fortune of that size can darn well afford to pay his own help out of pocket.
So I'm again left to wonder: Why is this particular perk such a popular one for CEOs?
I cannot imagine that it was important to Zuckerberg, meaning I just don't see him standing before the Facebook board of directors and demanding the $90,850 lest he clear his desk and go work for Google.
Might it be the directors who care in these situations? Might they want to ensure that their man or woman at the top keeps their personal finances in order so as not to call into question their ability to do the same for the company?
If that's the case, though, it means these boards don't trust their CEOs as far as they could throw them, a judgment, were it to take root in the public mind, that could accomplish the exact opposite of what picking up the tab was intended to accomplish.
Whatever the explanation, I'm just relieved that Zuck's gotten his affairs in order.
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