Novell CEO's pay surges in 2004

Novell Chief Executive Jack Messman's pay nearly doubled in 2004 to $2.1 million, boosted chiefly by a $967,000 bonus, the Linux and server software company disclosed in a regulatory filing Thursday. In 2003, Messman received no bonus and was paid $1.1 million.

Included in Messman's 2004 compensation was corporate aircraft use valued at $54,615, Novell said in the filing. In addition, Messman received stock options worth $3.8 million in coming years, assuming the company's stock increases in value by 5 percent per year. Novell is the No. 2 seller of Linux after Red Hat, but in its most recent quarter, only $15 million of the company's $290 million in total revenue came from the open-source operating system, a result the company called disappointing.