Freshworks' board reworks CEO Girish Mathrubootham’s stock award
Freshworks has cancelled the performance-based stock award of 6 million shares to founder and chief executive Girish Mathrubootham, according to a regulatory filing.
Nasdaq-listed Freshworks’ board said the decision was taken in the backdrop of the macroeconomic headwinds that have created challenges for the company’s stock price.
“As a result of macroeconomic conditions that are entirely outside the control of the company’s leadership team, the stock price hurdles were too far ahead of the current stock price for the CEO PRSU award to have the retention value expected at the time the award was granted,” the company said in the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 16.
These performance-based restricted stock units were awarded to Mathrubootham in 2021. It was tied to achievement of various stock price hurdle requirements. This included the requirement of having the company’s stock price average around $200 before January 2029.
Mathrubootham, though, has now been allotted stock awards valued at $19 million. The founder also continues to hold the 3 million restricted stock units to vest over four years for taking the company public in 2021.
Freshworks’ board also approved stock awards to the software startup’s top deck, including president Dennis Woodside, chief financial officer Tyler Sloat, and chief product officer Srinivasagopalan Ramamurthy.
Woodside has been granted stock awards worth $15 million, while Sloat and Ramamurthy have been awarded stocks worth $10 million and
