• On GameFAQs: The top 10 strangest game bosses

Digital Media

Read all 'executive compensation' posts in Digital Media
March 3, 2009 8:02 AM PST

Google doles out $6.3 million in exec bonuses

by Dawn Kawamoto
  • 10 comments

For Google's executive management team, the $6.3 million in bonuses they received for last year's performance can buy a lot of Android phones.

Google, in a filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, noted its new chief financial officer, Patrick Pichette, received a $1.24 million bonus for his five months of work on the new job. For Pichette, he did not have to wait a full 12 months to become a Google millionaire.

Outgoing CFO George Reyes, meanwhile, received a bonus of $675,000. Over the past year, Google's stock has outperformed the Nasdaq.

Over the past year, Google's stock has outperformed the Nasdaq.

(Credit: Yahoo Finance)

Google's Jonathan Rosenberg, senior vice president of product management, received the largest bonus, with $1.64 million coming his way.

Rosenberg was one Google executive who was active on its fourth-quarter earnings call, in which the company exceeded Wall Street's estimates despite facing the headwinds of a dire economy.

Alan Eustace, senior vice president of engineering and research and development, and Omid Kordestani, senior vice president of global sales and business development, meanwhile, each received a $1.38 million bonus.

As with , Google's co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as its CEO Eric Schmidt, did not collect a bonus.

January 15, 2009 1:42 PM PST

Yahoo CEO Bartz to receive $1 million salary

by Dawn Kawamoto
  • 16 comments

Updated at 5:20 p.m. PST, with comments from executive recruiter Jon Holman.

Yahoo is providing its new CEO, Carol Bartz, with a $1 million base salary, as part of a lucrative $19 million compensation package for the former Autodesk executive, according to a filing Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Under the four-year employment contract, Bartz, 60, will also receive an annual equity grant valued at approximately $8 million in February, the filing stated. This grant will be doled out at the same time other Yahoo executives receive their annual equity grants.

And like most executives who leave behind unvested stock options to take a new job, Bartz will also be compensated for forfeiting her stock grants and post-employment medical coverage that she left behind at Autodesk. That compensation will come in the form of $10 million, with a quarter of it paid in cash and the remainder in Yahoo restricted stock that will vest through 2009.

In addition to her $19 million compensation package, Bartz will also be eligible for an annual bonus of up to $4 million above her base salary, if she hits certain targets, according to the filing.

"This compensation package is maybe a little on the rich side, but it's definitely not out of whack," said Jon Holman, who heads the executive recruiting firm The Holman Group.

Given that Yahoo is a turnaround situation and a multibillion-dollar company, Holman noted, Bartz's compensation package is relatively in line for a CEO of her caliber.

Bartz may also be eligible for 5 million Yahoo shares, if she can get the company's under-pressure stock price to rise a certain percentage within the next four years. Bartz will have a seven-year period to cash in those eligible shares.

But there is one aspect of the 5 million share payout that is unusual, Holman noted.

Under the employment agreement, Bartz can potentially walk away with no vested options after a four-year period, or a tidy sum of more than $100 million, if the exercise price were set today at $10 a share.

The compensation plan calls for Yahoo's stock to increase by a certain percentage at various intervals over the four-year period. But the unusual part of the plan is that the shares will not vest at all, if the stock does not reach those various levels.

Typically, stock options will vest, regardless of the trading price, on a scheduled basis. The vesting, however, may accelerate, or the number of shares eligible for vesting may increase, if an executive is able to achieve and maintain a company's stock price at a particular level.

But under Bartz's compensation plan, she could theoretically walk away with none of the 5 million shares vesting, Holman noted.

"This provision, while not unheard of, is not common," Holman said.


  • prev
  • 1
  • next
advertisement

Google's mobile hopes go beyond Nexus One

The world may have thrilled to the potential for a Google Phone, but what Google actually unveiled is its plan for a new smartphone world order.
• Photos: Unboxing Nexus One

Using your smartphone safely

faq Worms, Trojans, and SMS attacks are risks for mobile phones, but the biggest practical threat to users is losing the device.

About Digital Media

The Web is now the place to go for news and entertainment. Look here for the latest on blogs, music, video, virtual worlds, social networking and more.

Add this feed to your online news reader

Digital Media topics

Most Discussed



advertisement

Inside CNET News

Scroll Left Scroll Right