Tech company CEO compensation raises ire

Efforts at reform proceeding, but slowly

By Ann Bednarz , Network World , 05/09/2008

Share/Email
Tweet This
Comment
Print

Executive compensation has been a hot-button issue for several years, and the final crop of fiscal year 2007 proxy statements filed in March and April did little to quell the cry for reform from industry watchdogs, activist shareholders and the general public.

In the high-tech industry alone, dozens of CEOs came away with multimillion dollar compensation packages, pumped up by huge stock and option awards.

From Trust to Process: Closing the Risk Gap in Privileged Access Control: Download now

"Half of these companies had horrible years for their stockholders, yet the CEOs still walk away with sinful amounts of money," voiced one Network World reader in response to our compilation of CEO compensation at 30 network-industry companies. "As an investor, I would like more accountability from the executives of publicly held firms. By accountability, I don’t just mean that they have to certify their financial reports. I mean they shouldn't get a bonus unless they have improved the investors’ positions."

Network chiefs take home the dough
These 12 CEOs (and former chiefs) topped our compensation tallies.

Name, company	Salary	Bonus	Stock awards	Option awards	Non-equity incentive plan compensation	Change in pension value & nonqualified deferred compensation earnings	All other compensation	Total 2007 compensation
John Chambers, Cisco Related Content	$350,096	$3,500,000	$0	$7,126,514	$0	$0	$7,677	$10,984,287
Paul Otellini, Intel	$770,000	$0	$595,100	$6,034,700	$3,964,200	$0	$178,000	$11,542,000
Jonathan Schwartz, Sun	$980,769	$0	$7,582,647	$2,776,603	$2,507,000	$20,559	$246,569	$14,114,147
Joe Tucci, EMC	$93.5B	$88.2B	↑6.1%	$23.8B ↑ 5.5% from Q107 Announced April 28, 2008	$0	$0	$0	$0
Randall Stephenson, AT&T	$61.1B	$57.4B	↑6.4%	Due in May	$0	$0	$0	$0
Sam Palmisano, IBM	$51.1B	$44.3B	↑15.4%	$14.45B ↑ 13.6% from Q307 Announced April 24, 2008	$0	$0	$0	$0
Mark Hurd, HP	$46.5B	$43.7B	↑6.4%	$11.42B↑ 2% from Q107 Announced April 30, 2008	$0	$0	$0	$0
Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon	$40.1B	$41.0B	↓ 2%	Due May 12	$0	$0	$0	$0
Larry Ellison, Oracle	$38.3B	$35.4B	↑8.3%	$9.7B ↑ 9% from Q107 Announced April 15, 2008	$0	$0	$0	$0
*Gary Forsee, Sprint Nextel**	$36.6B	$42.8B	↓14.5%	$7.45B ↓ 21% from Q107 Announced April 24, 2008	$0	$0	$0	$0
*Edward Whitacre, AT&T**	$34.9B	$28.5B	↑22.5%	Q308 revenue $9.8B ↑10.4% from Q307 Announced May 6, 2008	$0	$0	$0	$0
Comcast$30.9B$24.97B↑23.7%$8.39B, ↑ 13.5% from Q107 Announced May 1, 2008 Apple$24B$19.3B↑24.3% Q208 revenue ↑ 42.8% to $7.51B Announced April 23, 2008 EDS$22.1B$21.3B↑4%$5.37B ↑ 2.87% from Q107 Announced April 24, 2008Oracle$18B$14.4B↑25%Q408 due in June (Q108, Q208 and Q308 total revenue $15.2B, ↑ 24.8%)Google$16.59B$10.6B↑56.5% $5.19B ↑ 42% from Q107 Announced April 17, 2008 CSC$14.9B$14.6B↑2.1%Q408 results due May 21 (Q108, Q208 and Q308 total revenue $12B) Sun$13.9B$13.1B ↑6.2%Q308 revenue $3.27B,↓ 0.5% from Q307 Announced May 1, 2008Qwest$13.8B$13.9B ↓ 1%$3.39B,↓ 1.38% from Q107 Announced May 6, 2008EMC$13.2B$11.2B↑18.5%$3.47B ↑ 17% from Q107 Announced April 23, 2008

Click to see: Chart of CEOs compensation

Such comments echo complaints that have been voiced for years. "Executive compensation is under attack and has been for a number of years," says Nora McCord, a consultant at Steven Hall & Partners, which specializes in executive compensation consulting.

Share/Email
Tweet This
Comment
Print

Partner Content

www.bmc.com

Gartner 2009 Magic Quadrant for Job Scheduling

Gartner has positioned BMC CONTROL-M in the Leaders Quadrant of their "2009 Magic Quadrant for Job Scheduling." The report assesses the ability to execute and completeness of vision of key vendors in the marketplace. Read a full copy today, courtesy of BMC Software.

Download whitepaper

Dell's SMART Approach to Workload Automation

Read a compelling case study by EMA, Inc. to learn how Dell uses BMC CONTROL-M to cut cost and increase productivity with workload automation.

Download whitepaper

Workload Automation Cost Savings 2 Minute Video

A major computer manufacturer uses BMC CONTROL-M and just four people to schedule and run over 85,000 jobs every month. By switching to BMC CONTROL-M, they more than quadrupled the workload without adding a single staff member. See how in this 2-minute video overview.

Go to video

Comments (1)

Compensation Can't Be Short-SightedBy Anonymous on May 12, 2008, 9:27 amShareholders need to demand long-term assestment of Management performance instead of just short term. Many of the problems seen by the Mortgage industry (as well...

Reply | Read entire comment

View all comments