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Mirror, mirror on the wall – who's the fattest cat of all?

Yep, it's Sultan of Greed Charles Wang

Six of the top 10 earning chief execs in the US run IT companies, according to Forbes. Computer Associates boss Charles Wang heads the list with a package worth a whopping $640.1 million last year, up from his 39th place in the list in 1998. It is not clear whether Wang's payment includes his part of the $550 million stock a US court ordered three execs to return to the company late last year. Delaware County Court ruled the company had exceeded its authority in granting the 9.5 million extra shares worth $550 million. The full story can be found here. More new entrants to the top ten were Bobby Johnson, of California-based Foundry Networks, who grabbed the number two position on the back of his $230.5 million package. And while many ISPs are losing money hand over fist, AOL head Stephen Case was the sixth highest earner, with a healthy $117.1 million. Other industry heavyweights who made it into the Forbes list included Cisco's John Chambers with $121.7 million, IBM's Louis Gerstner with $107.2 million and Peter Karmanous of Compuware, $87.5 million. According to Forbes, salaries and bonuses were not the driving factors in top pay – and accounted for just 23 per cent of total pay. The bulk came from stock grants or options, a switch from five years ago, when salaries and bonuses made up 60 per cent of exec packages. The best city to live in to make big bucks was still New York, the study found. The Big Apple paid an average $5.24 million to execs, compared to $4.87 million in Minneapolis and $3.64 million in Detroit. Forbes surveyed 800 US companies based on total compensation packages offered, including salary, bonuses and stock gains for 1999. ® Related stories E-millionaires cash in big time Gates money-pile now bigger than galaxy Elvis sees God thrash Pope

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