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It pays more to be kicked out of HP's circle of trust than it does to be hired and put at the helm. After much ballyhooing in the blogosphere about the severance package departing CEO Leo Apotheker will receive after a short 11-month stint, the real numbers are in, as reported by HP this week in a regulatory filing. The tally? More than $13 million cash and stock.
In a twisted kind of way, the fuzzy numbers almost make sense. Under Apotheker's lead, HP's market value came crashing down $40 billion, so what's another $13 million out the door? Mark Hurd, meanwhile, left the company with $12.2 million in cash and $30 million in stock after sitting at the helm for five years and boosting HP's value by $50 billion, the Sacremento Bee reports.
Incoming CEO Meg Whitman, who is already a billionaire from her eBay days, will earn $1 per year. That's before bonus pay that could be worth up to several million dollars. Whitman also has the option to purchase 1.9 million shares of HP stock over the next two years. That's all well and good, but if history is any indication, the real money will come when HP's board inevitably shows her the door.
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Morete
September 30, 2011 at 10:32am
What started this mess...
1.) July 1999, Carly Fiorina, the first WOMAN CEO of a company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
2.) On September 3, 2001, SHAREHOLDERS (who knew nothing about the technology business), passed a vote to merge with Compaq. The vote occurred after a proxy fight between SHAREHOLDERS and Walter Hewlett who objected to the merger.
In the good ol' days, circa 1970's, Steve Wozniack co-founder of Crapple originally designed the Crapple 1 computer while working at HP. HP had innovators, inventors and people with an imagination and know-how in technology. HP allowed them to "do their stuff". Shareholders now run the corporation and know nothing about technology or how to run a business. Dragging in a bunch of drunk gamblers from Las Vegas probably would do a better job at appointing a qualified CEO than what HP has now.
Neufeldt2002
September 30, 2011 at 8:32am
The salary for a CEO really isn't important when at a large corp. Everyone knows the money is in the bonuses and stock options they receive, that's why the trend nowadays is a $1.00 salary. But it does make the less informed think that they actually care, which they don't.
ddimick
September 30, 2011 at 8:42am
Uh, what are the uninformed supposed to think they care about, exactly? It's not a secret where CEO compensation comes from. Anyone who cares to read a 10-K knows exactly how they're paid. Since compensation drives behavior, it's equally easy to see what their priorities are.
In this case the $1 salary is important. Meg won't be paid much if she doesn't turn the company's stock around. In order to turn the stock around, profit margins and revenues must increase. If they don't, she'll have to rely on the billions she already has.
ddimick
September 30, 2011 at 8:27am
It's clear that Meg got/took the job with her first priority being to increasing shareholder value. She won't get paid squat unless she does. I believe Steve Jobs was on the same salary while he was CEO of Apple.
big_montana
September 30, 2011 at 7:42am
So Leo basically wipe dout the value created by Hurd. Good job.
ddimick
September 30, 2011 at 8:31am
And he did it all in less than a year. Since I work for a competitor, I wish they would have kept Leo around forever.
