London - Simon Cowell's company Syco's profits have fallen by over £40m.
The 56-year-old music mogul will receive a much smaller pay cheque this year after his venture made just £28.6m in the year up until March, a stark contrast to the £71m it made in the previous year.
Simon - who has 22-month-old son Eric with girlfriend Lauren Silverman - owns 40% of Syco and his dividend is expected to be £10m, less than half of the £24.3m he took home 12 months previously.
The company - which is also part owned by Sony, which has 50% of the shares, and Topshop boss Sir Philip Green, who has the remaining 10% - saw revenues fall after the US version of The X Factor was axed.
Despite suffering a hit in the wallet, Simon has still shown his generous side recently and gave £1000 to a security guard for chasing an intruder from his London home.
The Britain's Got Talent star wanted to meet with M'Bathonha Mendes - who worked for a local security firm - personally and gave him a Christmas card and the money to thank him for his bravery.
Simon previously admitted he feared for his young son's safety after being told his house had been burgled.
He said: “It was nerve-racking. Lauren was woken up with me and we checked on Eric.
“That was the first thing we did, to make sure he was OK.
“Apart from the fact someone broke into my house and stole my stuff, which is scary, it could have been worse. Thankfully no one was hurt. But we have the worst guard dogs in the world.”