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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was only awarded half his maximum annual bonus for the last financial year, following the firm’s poorly-received Kin smartphone and failure to produce a rival to the iPad quickly.
According to Reuters, Ballmer received a $670,000 cash bonus for the fiscal year to June 30th, the equivalent to his annual salary.
However, the Microsoft boss, who was commended for increasing sales seven per cent to a record $62.5 billion, could have been awarded a bonus of up to double his salary.
The company’s annual proxy filing reportedly referred to the "unsuccessful launch of the Kin phone, loss of market share in the company’s mobile phone business, and the need for the company to pursue innovations to take advantage of new form factors."
Poor sales led Microsoft to pull the plug on the Kin on June 30th, just weeks after it was launched in the US, and a European roll-out was cancelled.
And the firm is yet to start selling a competitor to Apple’s iPad, despite Ballmer showing off a prototype of HP’s Windows-based Slate tablet as far back as January.
Including his bonus, Ballmer got a total direct pay package of $1.34 million for the last financial year, compared to $1.26 million in fiscal 2009. He recently ranked 16th in Forbes’ list of the US’s richest individuals.
