Skype Technologies SA, the -Internet-calling service being bought by Microsoft Corp, is firing senior executives before the deal closes, a move that reduces the value of their payout, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Skype vice presidents David Gurle, Christopher Dean, Russ Shaw and Don Albert were dismissed from the Luxembourg-based company, said the people, who requested anonymity because the departures aren’t public. Chief marketing officer Doug Bewsher and Anne Gillespie, head of human resources, were also fired. Executives Ramu Sunkara and Allyson Campa, from last year’s Qik purchase, were also let go.
The timing of the dismissals means stock options will be worth less than if the executives stayed until the closing of the US$8.5 billion deal, the people said. When a company gets bought, compensation is often tied to the purchase price, said Neil Sims, a managing director at Boyden, a search firm.
“All is good if you’re staying with that transition team or you’re packaged out,” said Sims, who is based in San Francisco. “But if you’re eliminated unceremoniously, without a package and without some negotiation, you could certainly lose unvested options.”
Silver Lake led a US$2 billion buyout of a 70 percent stake in Skype from EBay Inc in 2009. The private equity firm and several Skype directors have actively voiced their opinions on who should be fired, two of the people said.
Jenny Farrelly, a spokeswoman for Silver Lake, and Frank Shaw, a spokesman for Microsoft, declined to comment.
“As part of a recent internal shift, Skype has made some management changes,” said Brian O’Shaughnessy, a Skype spokesman.
Microsoft announced the Skype acquisition on May 10 and the US Federal Trade Commission said on Friday it approved the deal.
Skype was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. The founders sold the company for US$2.6 billion in 2005 to San Jose, California-based EBay.
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