Capellas bags Compaq cash, stock, options, etcetera

Compaq captain Michael Capellas got paid a whopping $5 million for his graft last year at the PC giant.

Capellas, who took over from Ben Rosen as Compaq CEO and chairman in September, netted a base salary of $1.2 million plus $3.8 million bonus in 2000, according to a statement made to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The 46-year-old also got $24.4 million in restricted stock awards, plus options for 850,000 common shares - expected to be worth $24.5 million when they expire in 2010.

The payments were quite a hike from the previous year. In 1999 Capellas, who was president and CEO of Compaq, picked up a base salary and bonus worth a total of $1.9 million, while he got options for 1.8 million shares and restricted stock worth around $5 million.

Last month he told German news magazine Der Spiegel that he expected zero growth for Compaq in Q1 this year, and five per cent growth for the first six months of the year - half of the previous year's figure. Late last year the vendor was forced to cut its sales forecasts for Q4, blaming sluggish consumer PC sales in the US. ®

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