Microsoft chief Nadella earned $84m in 2014

NEW YORK: Microsoft chief Satya Nadella, whose gaffe advising women to trust “karma” for pay raises sparked a firestorm, earned $84.3 million this year, according to an SEC filing Monday.

That amount, for the 2013-2014 fiscal year, included a base salary of $919,000, along with a bonus of $3.6m, as well as stock options worth $79.8m — though he can’t exercise those options until 2019, the filing reported.

Nadella, 47, who took over from Steve Ballmer in February at the head of the US software giant, has been at the centre of a controversy since early October over his comments at a conference in Arizona.

At the conference, on women in computing, Nadella stunned the audience when he answered a question by saying that women, instead of asking for a raise, should just trust “that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along. “He reportedly went on to contend that women who don’t ask for pay raises have a “superpower” in the form of “good karma, that’ll come back”.—AFP

Platform Specialty to buy Arysta LifeScience

DUBLIN: The Platform Specialty Products has reached an agreement to acquire Arysta LifeScience for around $3.51 billion, subject to regulatory approval, working capital and other adjustments, said a press release.

The combined entity will be run as a vertically integrated agricultural chemicals company with sales of around US$2.1bn, the 10th largest in the industry.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015.

EPZA chairman appointed

KARACHI: Aftab Anwar Baloch on Tuesday was elected chairman of Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA), says a press release.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014