Mr Semel has reeled in over 400 million dollars from his Yahoo! shares in the last three or four years. He sold 18 million of his stock options yet still owns another 18 million stock options. No wonder he'd rather be paid in shares - I can't think of a salary to top $400 million in less than four years (his previous salary was $600,000, mere pittance in comparison).
Since Mr Semel took over at Yahoo! five years ago share prices have tripled. His new contract, lasting until 2008, will give him a bonus of 1 million shares per year. If you do the calculations and you'll find that this is a pretty penny more than $600,000 a year - good job Mr Semel.
