A recent proxy filing in anticipation of Oracle's annual shareholder meeting, revealed an interesting and possibly surprising tidbit as uncovered by Business Insider: The database company's three top executives, including co-founder Larry Ellison and co-CEOs Mark Hurd and Safra Catz, have taken a 98 percent cut in pay this year.
That's because all three execs will do without various bonuses in their contracts that are connected with Oracle's financial performance in the 2019 fiscal year. Don't get out your tissues just yet, though: All three execs still made plenty this year, thanks to a combination of stocks in the company and the fruits of compensation plans from previous years. All together, Hurd made out the best, with a total annual compensation of $2,481,646, including an annual base salary of $950,000. Next is Ellison, who made a reported $1,662,828 thanks in part to his own annual salary being a purely symbolic one dollar, and finally there's Safra Catz, whose $965,981 in annual compensation is the lowest due to the fact that she pays for her own home security measures, unlike Ellison and Hurd whose security is paid for by the company.
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98 percent is still a pretty steep drop though, and the reason why is that last year, Ellison, Hurd, and Catz all received stock options tied to "the attainment of rigorous stock price, market capitalization and operational performance goals over a five-year performance period." They were entitled to similar stock options this year, but since those financial goals weren't achieved they weren't rewarded. The filing goes on:
"We believe the fiscal 2019 compensation of Mr. Ellison, Ms. Catz and Mr. Hurd addresses the feedback received from our stockholders because pay is aligned with the long-term interests of our stockholders."
And so, these three Oracle executives will have to content themselves with their enormous personal fortunes – particularly Ellison, with his net worth of $70 billion.
