Compensation Increases for CEOs at Venture-Backed Companies in 2004; VentureOne Compensation Survey: Bonuses for All Management Levels Decline.SAN FRANCISCO San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden -- The salaries for chief executive officers at venture-backed companies are $25,000 higher than they were a year ago, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the results of the most recent executive compensation survey conducted by VentureOne, a unit of Dow Jones Newswires Dow Jones Newswires is the real-time financial news organization owned by Dow Jones. Founded in 1882, its primary competitors are Bloomberg L.P. and Reuters. The company reports more than 420,000 subscribers -- including brokers, traders, analysts and fund managers -- as of July . The median total compensation-including salary and bonuses-for CEOs of U.S. venture-backed firms is $250,000, as of September 2004, up from $225,000 in September 2003. This is the same increase the compensation survey found when it was last conducted in March 2004, meaning that salaries are holding steady this year. CEOs also received a median equity stake of 5% in their companies, which is about the same as last year. The salaries for vice presidents and directors at venture-backed companies remain virtually unchanged from last year. The survey looks at annualized annualized Of or relating to a variable that has been mathematically converted to a yearly rate. Inflation and interest rates are generally annualized since it is on this basis that these two variables are ordinarily stated and compared. compensation data as of September 2004. "Venture-backed companies are rewarding their CEOs slightly more generously than they did in 2002 and 2003, when the base salary remained flat at $200,000," said John Gabbert, vice president of worldwide research for VentureOne. "That may be a sign of recognition for CEOs who have shepherded their companies through undoubtedly difficult economic conditions in the venture capital market over the past several years," According to the survey, the $250,000 total compensation identified in the 2004 survey is for CEOs who have been on the job for some time. Those CEOs hired in the past six months earn about $20,000 less per year. Despite the increase in top executives' salary, the bonuses and commissions paid to managers of venture-backed companies flattened or declined. For example, the median bonus for a CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. dropped to $40,000, which is $10,000 less than March 2004 levels, and the same amount as last year. Vice presidents and directors fared even worse. Vice presidents saw their bonuses and commissions drop to $18,000, from $25,000 last September. Directors' bonuses fell to $5,000, from $10,000 a year ago. "In general, bonuses may be more vulnerable to changes in the economy than other forms of compensation since many bonuses are milestone-driven elements rather than a fixed part of compensation packages," said Mr. Gabbert. Compared by industry, CEOs working for information-technology companies did not earn as much as their counterparts working in health care and products & services. IT CEOs earned median total compensation of $250,000, compared to $262,000 for health-care CEOs, and $260,000 for those in products & services companies. As in previous VentureOne compensation studies, salary varies by region. CEOs in Northern California Northern California, sometimes referred to as NorCal, is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, the state capital, Sacramento; as well as the substantial natural beauty of the redwood forests, the northern and the Northeast earned the most total compensation this year, at $270,000 and $275,000, respectively. Meanwhile, CEOs in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and the Northwest receive the most equity allocations, at 5.7% and 5.5%, respectively. VentureOne compiled data on more than 100 different positions at more than 800 venture-backed companies for its CompensationPro product, an online database of salary, bonus, and equity information. The statistics in CompensationPro are broken down by region, industry, stage of company development, company revenues, number of employees, and a variety of additional metrics that make it possible to benchmark compensation accurately. About VentureOne VentureOne (www.ventureone.com), a wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. of Dow Jones Dow Jones the best known of several U.S. indexes of movements in price on Wall Street. [Am. Hist.: Payton, 202] See : Finance , has been the leading provider of finance and investment data to the venture capital industry for almost 20 years. VentureSource, a sophisticated electronic database on the venture capital industry, is published by VentureOne. About Dow Jones Newswires Dow Jones Newswires (djnewswires.com) offers real-time news and information solutions for financial professionals providing investment, advice and institutional services. The division also offers news for financial firms' Web sites and Dow Jones Financial Information Services' database, newsletter and event businesses. In addition to Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones & Company (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :DJ; dj.com) publishes The Wall Street Journal and its international and online editions, Barron's and the Far Eastern Economic Review, Dow Jones Indexes and the Ottaway group of community newspapers. Dow Jones is co-owner with Reuters Group of Factiva, with Hearst of SmartMoney and with NBC Universal NBC Universal is a media and entertainment company formed in May 2004 by the combination of General Electric's NBC with Vivendi Universal Entertainment (part of the French Media Group, Vivendi SA). GE owns 80% of NBC Universal with the remaining 20% owned by Vivendi SA. of the CNBC CNBC Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (artificial intelligence) CNBC Consumer News and Business Channel CNBC Congress of National Black Churches, Inc. television operations in Asia and Europe. Dow Jones also provides news content to CNBC and radio stations in the U.S. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion