Computer and printer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard, based in Palo Alto, California gave its CEO Margaret Whitman close to $15.4 million in compensation for her first full year as the CEO of the company, even though HP reported a huge loss at year’s end in November.
HP, in a SEC filing, said that Whitman had received close to 70% of the compensation that had been targeted for the 2012 fiscal year that ended October 31, 2012. At the same time, the company was losing over $12.6 billion.
Whitman’s based salary during 2012 was $1 but she received a bonus that was performance related in excess of $1.69 million, but that was lower than had been compensated for. She also was given $7.04 million in stock rewards and another $6.41 million in options. During 2011, the CEO received $16.52 million in compensation.
News of Whitman’s total compensation comes just months after the company reported a fourth quarter loss of nearly $7 billion. Last month the company announced that the Justice Department was opening an investigation into improprieties in accounting by Autonomy prior to HP’s purchase of the company. HP claims the company was valued higher than it should have been and therefore HP paid more for the company than it should have and had to take a huge write down during its fourth quarter in 2012.
Whitman has been CEO since September 2011 and has made wholesale changes at HP trying to make the organization both more efficient and less costly. As part of those changes, the company is eliminating over 27,000 jobs before the end of 2014, which should save the company up to $3.5 billion annually.
