HP's CEO MARK HURD…. $34Mln IN SALARY FOR 2008

[Anonymous]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hyj-tVigbUCBfbO09_-QJ2JWBCWwD95RB4LG0
HP chief Hurd got pay valued at $34 million in ’08
SAN
FRANCISCO  — Under three years of Mark Hurd’s leadership,
Hewlett-Packard Co. has added more than $30 billion in sales, seen its
profit more than triple, and for that “exceptional and sustained”
performance Hurd was rewarded with a $34 million pay package in the
latest fiscal year.Hurd, 52, saw the value of his compensation in
fiscal 2008 jump 31 percent over the previous year, according to AP
calculations. The increase reflects the prosperous period HP enjoyed
before the economic meltdown hammered the stock and cut into HP’s
profit.

Hurd also exercised $10 million worth of stock options
and had $15.7 million worth of HP stock vest during the period,
according to a regulatory filing Tuesday by the Palo Alto, Calif.-based
technology company.The biggest chunk of Hurd’s raise came from cash
incentives based on HP’s performance during the 2008 fiscal year, which
ended Oct. 31 and was a banner year for the company.For the year, HP’s
profit rose 15 percent to $8.3 billion, while sales climbed 13 percent
to $118.4 billion. Those were big gains for a company the size of HP,
which has faced questions from Wall Street about its ability to
continue improving sales and profit margins at a steady clip.Hurd, who
joined HP in 2005 to engineer a major turnaround after the rocky reign
of former CEO Carly Fiorina, has answered by aggressively cutting costs
and positioning the company as a bigger challenger to IBM Corp. through
the $13.9 billion acquisition of technology services provider
Electronic Data Systems.

At the end of 2005, HP had sales of $86.7 billion and profit of $2.4 billion.
When
the company’s current round of job cuts is complete — HP is slashing
24,600 positions, nearly 8 percent of its 320,000 workers — Hurd will
have cut nearly 40,000 jobs in two big rounds of layoffs since he took
the job. Under Hurd’s watch, HP has also regained its title of world’s
biggest personal computer manufacturer from Dell Inc., though Dell has
been stealing some of that ground back with a new retail strategy.

Hurd’s
changes have helped HP’s bottom line but they did little to soothe
investors’ nerves in 2008, when HP’s stock price bounced around before
falling off sharply in September and October as the financial crisis
worsened. The stock lost more than 25 percent of its value during the
fiscal year.

Many analysts say HP is vulnerable to the slowdown
because of its exposure to the ailing consumer market through its
personal computers and lucrative printer ink, and because it relies
heavily on hardware sales, which have suffered as companies freeze
information-technology spending.Still, Hurd was rewarded in 2008 for
steering the company to “exceptional and sustained” financial
performance in his first three full years on the job.

Hurd
pulled down $23.9 million in performance-based cash bonuses in 2008,
according to the filing, which was almost twice as much as the $13.3
million in cash bonuses he snagged in 2007.Hurd, 52, was also rewarded
with $7.9 million worth of stock-based compensation during the period,
nearly $3 million less than in 2007.Hurd’s compensation package also
included more than $738,000 worth of additional compensation for things
like: home security ($256,000), personal use of HP’s corporate jet
($135,734) and a $71,000 mortgage subsidy Hurd is guaranteed for
relocation expenses under his employment agreement.

Hurd’s
salary of $1.45 million increased only slightly over 2007.HP also
revealed in its proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange
Commission that Richard Hackborn, an instrumental figure in building
HP’s printer division who served 33 years with HP before retiring in
1993, has decided not to stand for re-election to the board of
directors at HP’s annual shareholder meeting set for March 18.Hackborn
has been an HP director since 1992.

The Associated Press’
calculations of total pay includes salary, bonus, incentives, perks,
above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value
of stock options and awards granted during the year. The calculations
exclude changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they
sometimes differ from the totals companies list in the summary
compensation table of proxy statements filed with the SEC.

[Author]

January 21, 2009 at 12:06 PM