辩证地看玛丽莎·梅耶尔5500万美元离职补偿金

今天上午的话题是首席执行官价值几何，这个话题在新闻里已经出现过，随着上市公司纷纷召开股东大会还将更多。其中最引人注意的一条是，上周五雅虎向美国证监会提交报告称，在今后一年中，如果该公司经营的业务被收购，造成CEO玛丽莎·梅耶尔被免，梅耶尔将获得5500万美元的离职赔偿金。这顶黄金降落伞实在不小，再加上已披露的去年1400万美元和前年4200万美元的年薪让许多人都感觉有点不像话，毕竟雅虎请梅耶尔是来扭转颓势的，但她并没做到。

我们需要挖的再深一些，找个完全不同的例子。周末票房数据显示，迪士尼的《奇幻森林》连续第三周成为北美最卖座的电影，截至目前的全球票房已达到惊人的6.85亿美元。也就是说今年迪士尼已经有了两部大热影片，而现在还只是5月初。另一部高票房电影是两个月前上映的《疯狂动物城》，目前的全球票房为9.33亿美元。我们都知道，下个周末《奇幻森林》就不会继续高居榜首了，因为《美国队长3：内战》的风头会盖过北美市场的所有影片。许多分析师认为，该片有望成为2016年的票房冠军。美队3是哪家公司拍的呢？还是迪士尼。

为什么人们看到迪士尼CEO鲍勃·艾格2015年4350万美元的年薪时没有义愤填膺？看看上面这些票房数据就明白了。迪士尼董事会跟艾格签的合同到2018年结束，那时他将年满67岁。一些华尔街分析师认为，迪士尼董事会可能会请他留任。艾格收入确实令人艳羡，但只要他值得，也不算特别高。

再看看另一位吸引眼球的高薪人物——智游网CEO达拉·科斯罗萨西。价值9460万美元的薪酬让他成为已披露数据的标普500指数公司中收入最高的首席执行官。然而，他真能拿到那么多吗？新闻报道都这么说，但其实并非如此。要想知道为什么，就得干点儿很少有人做的事，就是查询智游网向美国证监会提交的高管薪酬报告。我们发现，该公司披露的超高薪水包括9080万美元的股票期权，科斯罗萨西实际上没有拿到这些期权，有可能永远也得不到。就算期权真的到手，他也未必能拿到真金白银。部分期权的发放时间为2020年9月以后，就算他熬到那时，还有个附加条件是智游网的股价上涨81%。如果所有条件都实现，他拿到的期权届时将价值8250万美元。确实是一大笔钱，但该公司股东将获利140亿美元。也就是说，即便股东赚了130亿美元，他也无法兑现期权。智游网董事会也许跟科斯罗萨西进行过激烈的讨价还价，但对股东来说，这么安排似乎还不错。

迪斯尼CEO艾格的薪酬也主要以股票为基础，未来几年时间里，他有可能获得很高的收入，也可能不多，甚至有可能一无所得。企业公布数额巨大的高管薪酬时，几乎都是这种情况。大家很少关注到一些关键性的细节，只知道又到了看着CEO的高薪眼泪汪汪、咬牙切齿的时候了，当然有时候确实是值得一哭的。但在大家怒喷本期社论前，或许可以考虑到美国证监会网站上看看，仔细看看实际数字，然后再做决定。

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林

Our topic this morning is how much CEOs are worth, which is in the news and will be more so as proxy season progresses. Most noted was Friday’s SEC filing by Yahoo YHOO -1.42% reporting that CEO Marissa Mayer would get a $55 million package if she is ousted as a result of Yahoo’s operating businesses being bought in the coming year. That golden parachute, combined with her reported pay packages of $14 million last year and $42 million the year before, struck many people as a bit much considering that she was brought in to turn Yahoo around and hasn’t done it.

We have to dig deeper to find an entirely different example. Weekend box office data show that Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book was the No. 1 movie in America for a third consecutive week; total worldwide box office is a staggering $685 million so far. That means Disney DIS -0.56% has two mammoth hits this year, and it’s only May 3; the other is Zootopia, released two months ago, with $933 million worldwide so far. We know Jungle Book won’t dominate again next weekend because it and all other movies in North America will be overwhelmed by Captain America: Civil War, which many analysts think may be the top movie of 2016. And who made that one? Disney again.

If you don’t recall howls of outrage when Disney reported that CEO Bob Iger’s 2015 pay package was worth $43.5 million, you can understand why. The board has signed him to a contract until 2018, when he’ll be 67, and some Wall Street analysts think the board may ask him to stay longer. He’s getting paid a ton, but it isn’t a lot if he’s worth it.

Which brings us to another high-profile pay package of the moment, that of Expedia EXPE -0.46% CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. At a valuation of $94.6 million, it makes him the highest paid CEO in the S&P 500 among companies that have reported. Except – is that what he really got paid? The headlines all say so. But it isn’t true. To see why, do something that hardly anyone does, which is read the SEC filing that reports his compensation. We find that $90.8 million of that huge reported figure is in the form of stock options that he hasn’t actually received yet and may never receive. Even if he does receive them, he may not make a dime from them. Some of the options cannot be given to him before September 2020, and even then he would get them only if Expedia stock had risen by 81%. In that case those options would be worth $82.5 million to him on the day he got them – a lot of money, but shareholders would have gained $14 billion. If they gained only, say, $13 billion, he won’t get those options at all. Now maybe the board could have driven a harder bargain with Khosrowshahi, but this doesn’t seem like a bad deal for the shareholders.

Iger’s pay package also consisted mostly of stock-based awards that may pay a lot, or a little, or nothing at all over a period of years. This is almost always the case when you see huge pay numbers reported. What you rarely see reported are the details that make all the difference. It’s the time of year for wailing and gnashing of teeth over excessive CEO pay, and sometimes it is definitely justified. But before you launch into a rage over the latest editorial, you might consider visiting sec.gov, reading the actual numbers, and deciding for yourself.