Some Software CEOs Felt the Pain; Some Just the Gain

Some CEOs of software companies share your pain. Others don't.

With 2002 proxies coming in, investors can get a look at how software's ugly year on Wall Street affected compensation in the corner office. It may be a confusing picture, since the connection between share performance and compensation seems uneven at best. (Our informal survey did not include salaries at some software companies, such as Microsoft(MSFT) and Oracle(ORCL), which will not file current proxies until later in the year.)

Sybase (SY) CEO John Chen, for example, suffered even more than his shareholders. While Sybase stock sank 15.2% in calendar 2002, Chen's cash compensation package plunged by 75% and his options award was cut in half. The biggest difference in Chen's package: a restricted stock award valued at $4.36 million in 2001 that was not repeated in 2002.

And Thomas Siebel, founder and CEO of Siebel Systems(SEBL), was a $1-a-year man for the second year in a row. Additionally, the compensation committee canceled 26 million in options already held by the CEO at his own request.

Then there was PeopleSoft(PSFT) CEO Craig Conway. While stock in his company dropped 53% in 2002, his compensation soared, largely on the strength of a $14.6 million restricted stock award. Conway's salary stayed flat at $1 million, his bonus dropped from $2.32 million to $1.92 million and he was granted 4.1 million options, compared to 1 million options the year before.

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, PeopleSoft's compensation committee praised Conway's "outstanding" performance as a leader, cited the company's overall performance and said it considered equity grants made to CEOs of other similarly sized companies. Asked about Conway's compensation, the company said it had nothing to add to the information contained in the filing.

The news may not offer much consolation to investors smarting from last year's stock declines, but CEOs across technology sectors suffered a sizeable drop-off in pay in 2002. According to benefits research firm Equilar, the median pay package, excluding options, for tech chiefs shrank 15% last year.