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HP pays well for siphoning Dell CIO

Michael Singer Staff Writer, CNET News.com
 
Michael Singer

Hewlett-Packard is paying top dollar to acquire Randy Mott, the former Dell chief information officer, who just escaped the oppressive summer heat of Round Rock for the cool breeze in Palo Alto.

Randy Mott
Randy Mott

According to papers filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mott gets a base salary of $690,000 per year with an option to purchase 500,000 shares of HP common stock and another $690,000 bonus for the rest of this year and next.

To replace his benefits at Dell, HP is also ponying up a signing bonus of $2.2 million, 285,000 shares of restricted stock, and $7 million for his performance between 2005 and 2008, of which $5 million is guaranteed. Mott gets the rest if HP meets its sales goals. Mott also gets $1 million from HP to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area, which should buy him a nice cozy two-bedroom house in a fairly decent neighborhood.

In the event that Mott is a victim of downsizing (a very real threat at HP these days even for management), HP will pay just over $1 million in severance pay as well as being able to vest half of his shares.

Total price tag for just punching the clock: $8.58 million, putting him in the same level as some professional athletes.

And of course that doesn't even include all the paperwork Mott filed with the SEC in June to option about 170,000 shares of the Dell stock he owns.