eBay cuts chief executive pay by 53 percent

California (Agencies) - E-commerce giant eBay cut the total compensation of its chief executive, John Donahoe, by more than half.

Donahoe was paid $13.8 million (TL 30.6 million), including salary and bonus, in 2013, down from $29.7 million (TL 66.2 million) a year ago. The company said that while its chief executive performed well, the firm's financial performance "did not fully meet expectations." eBay generated earnings of about $850 million in the final quarter of last year, an increase of 13 percent, but its results did not meet expectations. However, the main explanation for the severity of Donahoe's pay cut is his one-time award of $14.8 million in performance shares in 2012, which doubled his compensation that year. His sharp drop in pay comes amid an ongoing battle between the firm and activist shareholder Carl Icahn over its online payments business, PayPal. Icahn called on eBay to spin off PayPal.