IN THE CORPORATE generosity stakes, Turkish entrepreneur Nevzat Aydin just raised the bar a few notches.
The CEO of online food ordering service Yemeksepeti has handed his employees bonuses worth $27 million (€24.6 million) after selling his company for a huge sum to a German rival.
In May, four-year-old food delivery startup Delivery Hero took over the Turkish outfit for $589 million (€537 million at today’s rates) – the biggest deal to date in the sector.
This week Aydin told the Hurriyet newspaper he was setting a “bad example” for other bosses by sharing some of the windfall with 114 of the company’s workers – an average of about $237,000 (€216,000) apiece.
“We did this because if there is a success, we have accomplished it altogether,” he said.
Some employees cried, some screamed, some wrote letters of thanks … there were emotions, because you affect the lives of the people. People can buy homes, cars.”
It pays to wait
Yemeksepeti’s workers were generally paid between $1,000 and $2,000 per month, which meant the bonuses were worth several times their annual salaries.
It made the offer to all employees who had been with the company for over two years despite being under no obligation as part of its agreements.
Individual bonuses were decided based on their length of service and “future potential in the company”, Aydin told CNN Money.
The CEO will continue running Yemeksepeti and will also join the board of Delivery Hero. The German startup is the main European rival to UK-based Just Eat, which has a market value of over £3 billion (€4.3 billion) on the London Stock Exchange.
Aydin said if he had waited another year to sell the value of the deal would have been even higher.
“The $589 million paid is big, but what matters is to be able to reject offers of $300 million, $500 million, to wait for the right price,” he said.
You must know to say ‘no,’ you should not be afraid. The offer came up from $3 million to $589 million in 15 years.”
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