Oracle top bosses take salary cuts

Oracle, which has been slammed for its excessive executive compensation, seems to be keen to improve its image with some generous help from top bosses.

According to the company, Larry Ellison, Safra Catz and Mark Hurd would be taking bonuses for fiscal 2013 at $1.2 million for Oracle's CEO, and $717,000 each for the company's two co-presidents, amounts that were lower than what they would be entitled to, had the company's growth not missed expectations, AP reports.

But the three had turned down the payouts Oracle said, according to the report. ''Reflecting Oracle's pay-for-performance philosophy, they all voluntarily declined their fiscal 2013 bonuses and therefore received no bonuses,'' Oracle wrote in its latest proxy statement.

Ellison, Oracle's largest shareholder, holds a 25-per cent stake, currently valued at $39 billion. His annual salary is $1 and the total value of his compensation, which mainly comes from stock options, was down 18 per cent in the year.

The value of Ellison's total 2013 compensation though, remains at  a solid $78.4 million for the fiscal year ended in May.

His $94.6 million last year's compensation, however, made him the top-earning CEO in a survey this year of 300 large US companies conducted by consulting firm Hay Group and The Wall Street Journal.

Catz and Hurd in fiscal 2013 each took base salaries of $950,000, the same as in the prior year, with each receiving total compensation including stock options valued at about $43.6 million.

Ellison, 69, one of the highest-paid executives in the US has been ranked as America's third-richest person with personal wealth of $41 billion, by Forbes magazine.

The last fiscal year, had seen revenue at the company remain nearly unchanged at $37.2 billion, even as net income was up 9.5 per cent to $10.9 billion. The stock price increased 28 per cent over the period to $33.78.

An executive's total compensation during the last fiscal year is calculated by adding salary, bonuses, perks, above-market interest that the company paid on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year.

The value that an executive's stock and option awards for 2012 that was assigned by a company was the present value of what the company expected the awards to be worth to the executive over time.

The value is calculated by companies using one of several formulae.