Zoom fires President Greg Tomb ‘for no reason’: What does it mean?
Despite taking on key roles at Zoom, including overseeing the company’s sales operations and appearing on earnings calls, president Greg Tomb has been fired from his position at the video conferencing company.
The announcement was made on March 3 through a filing filing stating that Tomb is entitled to severance payments in accordance with the company’s arrangements, payable in the event of “termination without cause”.
Earlier in February, the company laid off about 15% of its workforce. Some 1,300 employees were affected by the decision, and CEO Eric Yuan also suffered a significant pay cut.
Read also: Zoom employees left in “utter disbelief, shocked” by layoffs
Although the former executive at Google only started in June 2022, he reported directly to Yuan, who had to rapidly expand the company during the peak caused by the pandemic. However, as demand for video conferencing services has declined in recent months,
Zoom has laid off staff. Tomb’s employment contract included a $45 million stock award that would vest over four years, in addition to a $400,000 base salary with an 8% bonus target, according to a June filing.
A spokesperson for the San Jose-based company confirmed there are no immediate plans to find a replacement for Tomb and declined to comment further on the matter.
Read also: Zoom jumps on AI bandwagon, predicts optimistic target for 2024; stock up 8%
In an interview with Bloomberg in January 2023 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tomb expressed optimism about Zoom’s growth potential while acknowledging increased competition. However, a few weeks later, Zoom announced that it would lay off 15% of its workforce.
Zoom named Greg Tomb as president in June 2022. He was responsible for the go-to-market plan, revenue initiatives and the office of the organization’s Global CIO. Tomb joined Zoom from Google Cloud with more than 20 years of experience, most recently as Vice President of Sales for Google Workspace, SMB, Data & Analytics, Geo Enterprises, and Security Sales.
What does “termination without cause” mean?
“Termination Without Cause” means separation resulting from termination of employment by Zoom without cause (and other than as a result of your death or incapacity for work), provided that you are willing and able to continue to provide services within the meaning of of the Treasury Regulation l.409A-l(n)(l), according to a company document dated May 19, 2020.
Payments that are contingent on future events, such as termination without cause, are reduced (or eliminated) before payments that are not contingent on future events, it says.