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Sprint CEO Dan Hesse cuts his pay after shareholder complaint

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse cuts his pay after shareholder complaint

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After reported complaints about the issue, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse is voluntarily altering his compensation structure to more accurately reflect his company's financial situation after it's iPhone deal. Last February, Sprint increased Hesse's total pay to nearly $12 million, but it was done with a bonus structure that didn't take into account the costs incurred from Sprint's deal with Apple

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Dan Hesse
Dan Hesse

After reported complaints about the issue, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse is voluntarily altering his compensation structure to more accurately reflect his company's financial situation after its iPhone deal. Last February, Sprint increased Hesse's total pay to nearly $12 million, but it was done with a bonus structure that didn't take into account the costs incurred from Sprint's deal with Apple. At the time, Sprint's compensation committee defended the decision by saying that "our launch of the iPhone was an extraordinary circumstance," which apparently didn't sit too well with shareholders. As a result, Hesse is cutting his overall pay by $3.2 million for 2012 — including cuts to his base salary and performance-based bonuses.

Hesse is not having an easy time of it as possible dwindling board support, losses, a rough road to LTE are making his job as CEO more difficult. On top of all of that, the decision to pay out as much as $15.5 billion over four years to carry the iPhone has been a polarizing. Hesse himself has said that "I still get crucified for deciding to carry the iPhone [...] I deal with that quite a bit." With any luck for Hesse, the pay cut will ease some tensions and give him a chance to focus on Sprint's turnaround: that iDEN network isn't going to transition itself.