Office Depot Parent Is Overpaying Its CEO, Shareholder Suit Says

May 13, 2021, 7:55 PM UTC

An investor in ODP Corp., which owns retail chains including OfficeMax and Office Depot, filed suit against its board Thursday in Delaware, claiming a $9.6 million stock award given to the company’s chief executive last year violated compensation limits set by stockholders.

The lawsuit, filed in Delaware Chancery Court, accuses ODP’s board of defying the company’s 2019 “long-term incentive plan” by handing CEO Gerry P. Smith more than 4.7 million shares in March 2020, despite a cap of 3.5 million.

Because of a 10-to-1 “reverse stock split” last June, Smith actually got about 470,000 shares, but by the same ...

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