Oracle Pays the Big Bucks for Former HP CEO Mark Hurd
posted Saturday Sep 11, 2010 by Nicholas DiMeo
Last week, I briefly mentioned that Mark Hurd may be going to Oracle after the HP debauchery. Well, it looks as though this speculation has actually turned out to be true. In an announcement that boosted their stock up by over seven percent, Oracle said they will look to pay Hurd, their new co-president, an annual salary of $950,000, and that he could receive a bonus of up to $10 million.
The SEC-filed offer letter was sent in after Oracle talked earlier in the week about hiring Hurd in the first place, just over a month after he was booted out of HP as their CEO.
For more on this, follow the break.
It looks like Hurd will have it made at Oracle as his buddy, Larry Ellison, is the CEO and will be his direct boss. Hurd will be made eligible to be elected to the board of directors as early as next month and he will be responsible for Oracle's consulting, marketing, global sales and support organizations.
Not only that, Hurd will also be allowed a stock option to purchase 10 million shares, at a price equal to the stock price on the date of purchase. If we go off of Friday's closing price, 10 million shares would be worth over $250 million. If that wasn't enough, Marky Mark can also purchase another five million shares every year for the next five years. Another half a billion dollars, sir? Why, yes, thank you, that would be most divine.
The world's largest enterprise software company is known for paying its brass well. Oracle's other co-president, Safra Catz, made roughly over $36 million last year after salary, bonus and options. That's hard living for her though, as the year before she made $7 million more. Hurd's predecessor, Charles Phillips, who resigned Monday, took home $30 million last year and also left with a lovely parting gift that hasn't been disclosed yet.
We're not done yet though, folks. On Tuesday, Oracle's top competitor and Hurd's old stomping ground, HP, filed a lawsuit against him in an attempt to block him from signing on with his new company, saying in the suit that Hurd put HP's "most valuable trade secrets and confidential information in peril."
It's okay though, because as we've discussed, Hurd got to keep a cool $12 million in cash and most of his stock and options. So if he doesn't get to be Oracle's new co-president, I think he'll be alright for a couple of months.
