Twitter's Dick Costolo (briefly) got richer by quitting

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo stepping down
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo stepping down

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo didn't get a golden parachute from the company when he resigned Thursday. But happy investors did briefly award him an $11 million going away present.

Unfortunately for him, that gift was fleeting.

Costolo owns a lot of Twitter (TWTR)stock, and the shares jumped about 3% Friday following news of his departure. With 8.2 million stock options and another 822,545 shares of the stock, that gave him a paper gain of about $10.52 million.

But by early afternoon Twitter shares were slightly lower, wiping out Colstolo's gains.

Overall, the outgoing CEO hasn't been a hit with investors. Shares of the social media company have lost about half their value since late 2013, soon after its successful IPO, which is one of the reasons Costolo was under pressure to resign.

Company filings indicate Costolo will apparently lose about 800,000 stock options when he leaves the company.

But he won't be giving up much in the way of pay by quitting his job. Company filings say his base pay was cut to $14,000 a year in August of 2013, just before the IPO, and the company has not indicated it has increased his pay since, nor do they show any recent stock grants or options.

Related: Twitter CEO Costolo quits

Most of his total compensation of $175,399 last year was in the form of perks. He had a car service estimated to be worth $32,250 (more than twice as much as his salary) and a security service for his home valued at $127,757.

Twitter chairman and co-founder Jack Dorsey, who will serve as interim CEO while the board searches for a new chief, will not receive any immediate compensation from his new post, but he got an even bigger bump from the rise of the stock. His holdings briefly increased by nearly $28 million at the open since he owns more shares.

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