Online video service provider Netflix Inc. (NFLX) has doubled Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings' compensation package for 2013, compared to the preceding year.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, Netflix said that Hastings' annual salary will be $2 million, while his annual stock option allowance will also be $2 million. Thus, his total compensation package for the year will be $4 million, compared to $2 million for 2012.
For 2012, Netflix had reduced the annual stock-option allowance for Hastings to $1.5 million from $3 million in 2011, while his annual salary was unchanged from the previous year at $500,000.
In early December, Hastings received a "Wells Notice" from the SEC indicating that the agency may bring a civil action against the company and Hastings over a July Facebook post by Hastings that allegedly violated Regulation Fair Disclosure.
Hastings had disclosed in a Facebook post on July 3 that customers watched over 1 billion hours of videos on Netflix in June. The SEC believes that was material investor information that must be disclosed in a regulatory filing or press release.
In November, Netflix adopted a stockholder rights plan, known as a 'poison pill,' to protect the company from a possible hostile takeover by activist investor Carl Icahn, who acquired a nearly 10 percent stake in the company.
NFLX closed Friday's trading at $89.33, down $1.17 or 1.29 percent on a volume of 1.59 million shares.
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