How much severance will Mark Hurd get?

Posted by Marc Hodak on August 9, 2010 under Executive compensation, Reporting on pay | Be the First to Comment

The numbers in the papers:  $28 million to $40 million.

The right number:  $12.2 million

That is the amount he is entitled to under the company’s pre-negotiated “Severance Plan for Executive Officers of Hewlett-Packard Company.”  All the rest is money he has already earned, and doesn’t deserve to be called “severance.”  Severance is what a company pays someone to shut up and go away.  It’s not what someone has already earned but not yet taken out of the company, generally for tax reasons.  The media gets this wrong all the time.