Silicon Valley executives in high tech companies have been earning record salaries even as investors have lost fortunes, sparking a new wave of indignation at executive perks, according to recent reports in the US media.
The latest expose of the cushy conditions enjoyed by business leaders came in the Wall Street Journal, which this week reported how an executive fired from a high-tech company received US$16 million in severance pay, plus a pension of US$828,000 a year.
A welder fired from the same company received just US$22,000 and an US$868 monthly pension, without any medical or social benefits, the report said.
In a similar case, George Shaheen, the former CEO of failed online grocer Webvan, is receiving a yearly stipend of US$350,000 to his dying day, and to his wife thereafter, even as other workers from the near bankrupt retailer are being fired without a cent in severance pay. These amounts are but a pittance compared to the astronomical sums awarded to many executives even as the share prices of their companies have been tumbling in the NASDAQ's long slide.
A report this week by the San Jose Mercury News detailed how some 800 bosses at Silicon Valley's leading 150 tech companies were last year granted US$4.8 billion in compensation -- an average of US$6 million each. This was double the overall compensation figure of 1999 -- even though the share index of those 150 companies dropped by some 24 percent.
Among the biggest earners were Ray Lane, the former chief operating officer of Oracle, who earned US$233.9 million even though his company failed to increase profits or share price.
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