Carol Bartz, the new CEO of Yahoo, will get a US$1m annual salary and a target bonus of US$2m, rising to US$4m if she pulls off a turnaround.
On top of this is a US$8m restricted stock award and another US$10m to compensate her for various benefits she loses by giving up the top job at Autodesk.
She will also receive options over another 5m shares, dependent on their price rising: so if Yahoo ever makes it back to where its stock price was before the failed Microsoft made its takeover bid last year, she could scoop another $37m, the Financial Times' tech blog points out.
The blog says the deal bears comparison with that received by Mark Hurd at Hewlett-Packard, who was called into save the ailing Hewlett-Packard. His package included US$8.7m of restricted stock (plus options that are now showing a profit of US$6m) for giving up his job at NCR; a relocation bonus" of US$2.75m for moving from the Midwest to California; annual salary and target bonus of US$4.2m; and options over a further 700,000 shares.
As the blog observes, no-one has is complaining that Hurd is overpaid right now.