Larry Ellison, the founder and CEO of Oracle Corp. and one of the
wealthiest people in the world, saw his pay jump to $96.2 million last
year.
The pay, disclosed in a corporate filing, was up 24 percent from
the previous year's total of $77.6 million. Most of Ellison's pay came
from stock options that were valued at $90.7 million when they were
granted in June 2011.
Those options, to buy 7 million shares at
$32.43 a share, have value only if the stock is trading above that
price. The options have been under water for most of the time since they
were granted. But on Friday, Oracle stock rose 21 cents to close at
$32.47.
The company cut Ellison's performance-based bonus to $3.9
million, down from $13.3 million a year earlier. Other senior executives
endured similar cuts. That was because Oracle's profit growth for the
year came in below its goals, according to the yearly filing it made
Friday.
Oracle's net income rose 17 percent to $9.98 billion for the year that ended May 31. Revenue rose 4 percent to $37.12 billion.
The
company said compensation was $51.7 million for both Safra A. Catz, its
president and chief financial officer, and Mark Hurd, its president.
Nearly all their pay was also in stock options that had little value as
of Friday.
Oracle said its compensation committee recognizes that
Ellison, 68, already "has a significant equity interest in Oracle, but
believes he should still be eligible for an annual compensation package
because of his active and vital role in our operations, strategy and
growth."
Ellison's salary was only $1 for the year that ended May 31, 2012, unchanged from the previous year.
Forbes
this week estimated Ellison's net worth at $41 billion. That ranked him
as the sixth-richest person in the world and the third-richest in the
United States, behind Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and investor
Warren Buffett, head of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
The Associated
Press' calculation isolates the value the company's board placed on the
executive's total compensation package in the last fiscal year. It
includes salary, bonus, performance-related bonuses, perks, above-market
returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock
options and awards granted.
The calculation doesn't include
changes in the present value of pension benefits. And they sometimes
differ from the totals that companies list in the summary compensation
table of proxy statements filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. The statements to the SEC reflect accounting charges taken
for the executive's compensation in the previous fiscal year.