Management and incentives

AppLovin Corporation APP

AppLovin paid Adam Foroughi $12,969,001 in 2025, and every dollar above his $400,000 salary arrived as 20,236 restricted shares that vest on four calendar dates with no target, no hurdle and no performance condition of any kind. The company states in the same proxy that it used no financial performance measure to link pay to results, which leaves the share price as the only thing that pays him, and he holds 61.6% of the vote over everything that touches it.

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AppLovin Corporation APPThe bet you're really making is that AppLovin's advertising engine keeps getting smarter, showing the right mobile ad to the right person, so companies pay more to reach each phone. Underneath that, you're betting the engine can keep charging far more for each app install even as the number of installs shrinks, and that it spreads from mobile games into online stores. Right now it is going well, with one thing to watch: the price charged per install jumped 75% in a year while the count of installs fell 10%, and revenue growth is slowing quarter to quarter. You pay about 25 times the last year's earnings, less than half the multiple the stock carried a year ago when it briefly fetched over $700. Company reportSep 6 AppLovin Corporation APPAppLovin's revenue growth has fallen in every quarter since June 2025, from 77% to 53%. Competitive advantageAug 25 Adobe Inc. ADBEAdobe paid Shantanu Narayen $51.2 million for fiscal 2025, and over 90% of his target package was equity graded on two things: the new subscription dollars Adobe adds each year, and whether the stock beats the Nasdaq 100 over three calendar years. The stock half paid 41% and then 45% in the two most recent closed cycles and all three open windows sit underwater, so the pay now rides on the subscription number alone, which points to price increases, paid AI tiers and free-to-paid conversion rather than deals, because the plan strips acquisitions out. Management and incentivesSep 20 GoDaddy Inc. GDDYThe bet you're really making is that the millions of small businesses and solo operators who run their websites, email, and domains through GoDaddy keep paying every year, and keep buying more from it. You're betting the newer, higher-margin work, taking card payments and building online stores, grows faster than the old domain-and-hosting business it was built on. Right now it is going well: revenue rose 6.6% to the biggest quarter in the company's history, and operating profit jumped 32% as costs came down. You pay about 15 times last year's earnings and under 14 times next year's, among the lowest the stock has fetched since it listed in 2015, with the shares down a third from their high. Company reportSep 7