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Dropbox Gave Three Executives $190 Million Stock Before IPO

The three earn base salaries of $400,000 and have cash bonuses with annual targets of $260,000. 

Dropbox Gave Three Executives $190 Million Stock Before IPO
The silhouette of Drew Houston, chief executive officer and co-founder of Dropbox Inc., is seen walking on stage during an event in San Francisco, California, U.S. (Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Dropbox Inc. granted about $190 million in stock awards to three top executives last year as the file-sharing company prepared for an initial public offering.

Chief Executive Officer Drew Houston received restricted shares worth $109.6 million, according to the company’s registration statement for an IPO filed Friday. Arash Ferdowsi, who co-founded the firm with Houston, was handed stock worth $46.7 million. Their shares will vest if Dropbox’s stock achieves a series of price hurdles ranging from $20 to $60 within a decade of the offering’s close, the filing said.

Quentin Clark, who joined last year to oversee engineering, product and design, was given shares worth $34.1 million in September. They’ll vest over five years as long as he remains on the job. He also got a $340,000 signing bonus.

The three earn base salaries of $400,000 and have cash bonuses with annual targets of $260,000. Houston and Ferdowsi haven’t previously received equity awards since they founded the company, the filing said.

Meg Whitman, the former CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., who joined Dropbox’s board in September, received stock worth $908,800.

Dropbox, which was valued at $10 billion in its 2014 funding round, could be one of the biggest U.S. corporate software companies to list domestically in recent years. The company filed with an offering size of $500 million, which is a placeholder and is likely to change.

Companies often grant large blocks of equity to executives when they go public, saying such awards are necessary to keep them on the job. Snap Inc. gave CEO Evan Spiegel shares worth $636.6 million as the firm went public last year. Chief Strategy Officer Imran Khan got a grant of stock worth about $100 million.

--With assistance from Alex Barinka

To contact the reporters on this story: Anders Melin in New York at amelin3@bloomberg.net, Jenn Zhao in New York at zzhao66@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alicia Ritcey at aritcey@bloomberg.net, Robin Ajello, Steven Crabill

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