What Ballmer's salary says about Microsoft's fortunes
MS-Watch | at | by Mike
An Associated Press story drifting around the Intertubes today suggests that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's personal earnings from the company fell around 6 percent in fiscal 2009. Even with that dip, the article estimated his total pay package at somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.28 million, so if nothing else Ballmer can cry himself to sleep on a soft, soft mountain of $100 bills.
Ballmer's salary actually rose by 4 percent, to $665,833, even as his bonus was cut by 14 percent to $600,000. The bonus is tied to a compensation committee's evaluation of the CEO's performance, and could have paid him "up to 200 percent of his base salary, or about $1.3 million," according to AP.