Don’t mess with Jack Dorsey.
Last year, Twitter (TWTR) CEO Jack Dorsey didn’t make a dime in salaries, bonuses, or stock awards from the company. He did, however, receive more than $68,500 in security services, according to a Twitter filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In a footnote embedded deep inside a recent Twitter filing, Twitter revealed that it paid $68,506 for Dorsey’s “residential security and protective detail” in 2015. In addition, the company paid more than $43,000 for the same security services for previous CEO Dick Costolo.
Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter and subsequently moved on to co-found Square (SQ), a mobile-payments company where he also serves as chief executive, was brought back to lead Twitter last year after a tumultuous few years. Twitter’s growth has stagnated and shareholders were growing concerned that it was being passed by as new services, like Instagram, Snapchat, and others, started attracting user attention. Dorsey replaced Costolo last year.
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Twitter has faced serious difficulties. Since 2012, the company has lost money each year, despite growing revenue. In 2015, for instance, Twitter generated $2.2 billion in revenue, but lost $521 million.
Shareholders haven’t lost sight of Twitter’s problems. In the last year, shares are down more than 65% to $17.48.
It’s unclear what Dorsey is getting for the more than $68,500 in security he’s provided, but it’s not unorthodox that a billionaire—or a chief executive in general—might get a security detail from a company.
Last year, for instance, Equilar, which tracks executive compensation, released an analysis of Coins2Day 100 data to determine how much companies have been paying over the years to protect their CEOs. Equilar found that in 2013, Amazon (AMZN) paid $1.6 million for security on its chief executive Jeff Bezos. Like Twitter, Amazon didn’t detail exactly why it paid so much for security, but did say that it believed the cost was “reasonable and necessary” for the e-commerce giant’s “benefit.”
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Several other prominent companies, including Oracle (ORCL), Disney (DIS), and Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) have also paid massive sums over the years to protect their executives. Oracle, for instance, spends about $1.5 million safeguarding its CEO Larry Ellison.
That said, those high sums tend to be the outliers. Equilar’s report revealed that the average Coins2Day 100 company spends approximately $30,000 a year for executive security. The company added that the higher costs can often be attributed to one-time fees, including installation of security equipment. After that, the costs will typically fall.
So, why might an executive need protection in the first place? For one thing, he or she is running a massive corporation and is typically wealthy, making the person a target for some individuals, and critical to the ongoing health of a company—something shareholders care deeply about. In addition, Timothy Horner, head of security risk management at Kroll, told Coins2Day last year that some companies, like defense contractors that, say, make drones for the U.S. Government, could be targets of the Islamic State. There’s also the possibility of a CEO facing the wrath of a “crazy niece or nephew.”
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment on what services its security detail provides for Dorsey.