If you work for SodaStream International, you’ll take home a nice bonus this Jewish New Year: each employee is getting 18,000 shekel, which comes to almost exactly $5,000.
Last week, the Israel-based manufacturer of home seltzer makers was acquired by PepsiCo for $3.2 billion.
SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum told employees by email on Sunday that those of them who have been with the company one year or more would be getting the equivalent in shekels of $4,960. Employees who have worked less than a year will receive a prorated bonus, based on the number of months they’ve been on the job.
“What a special and emotional week we have had,” Birnbaum wrote the employees. “We received so much love and praise from all over the world, but it was especially exciting to experience the pride of SodaStream’s employees and the national pride of the deal.”
Out of the company’s 3,000 employees, 2,500 work in Israel.
The bonuses will cost SodaStream more than 46 million shekels (close to $13 million). They will be paid out after the sale is completed, in December, according to Birnbaum, who also said he got PepsiCo to agree to the bonus.
So, not the Jewish Rosh Hashanah, the other one.
Birnbaum will earn an estimated $23 million from the sale, if he uses his stock options.