AMD reduces pay package for its CEO by 14 percent in 2009 to $4.5 million

AMD reduces pay package for CEO by 14 pct. in 2009

SAN FRANCISCO — Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the world’s No. 2 maker of computer microprocessors, reduced its CEO’s pay package 14 percent last year. The company cut executives’ pay in response to falling sales.

CEO Dirk Meyer received a package for the 2009 fiscal year that AMD valued at $4.5 million. That’s according to Associated Press calculations based on a regulatory filing late Friday. For 2008, his pay package was valued at $5.3 million.

In AMD’s 2009 fiscal year, which ended Dec. 26, Meyer received restricted stock and options of $3.7 million. In 2008, his stock-and-options package was $4.4 million.

Meyer, 48, has held AMD’s top job for the past year and a half. He became CEO after Hector Ruiz left to become chairman of the spinoff company made up of AMD’s chip-making plants.

In 2009, besides restricted stock and options of $3.7 million, Meyer received:

— A salary of $792,685.

— A bonus of $45,000 to restore his salary for three months of 2009 to its level before AMD cut salaries for its executives.

— Other compensation of $7,478, made up mainly of AMD’s matching contributions to Meyer’s 401(k) retirement account.

In 2009, $605,280 worth of Meyer’s stock also vested.

In February, AMD cut Meyer’s salary 20 percent in light of the sour economy. Other executives’ pay was cut 15 percent. No bonuses were paid in 2009 to executives because of what the company called the “challenging business environment.”

After customer demand and the company’s finances improved later in the year, the salary cuts were restored. All AMD employees whose salaries had been cut received one-time payments that restored their full salaries for the September-November 2009 period.

When Ruiz left AMD in March of last year to head AMD’s factory spinoff, GlobalFoundries, he received a retirement payment of $4.4 million. He also received $3 million for finishing the spinoff successfully.

In 2009, AMD’s revenue fell 7 percent to $5.4 billion, and it posted a net profit of $304 million. The company had lost $3.1 billion the year before. The results include those of AMD and its factory spinoff.

AMD supplies about 20 percent of the world’s PC and server microprocessors. Intel Corp. owns essentially the rest of the market. A sagging PC market hurt both companies at the start of 2009, but they rebounded later in the year as consumer demand picked up.

The company’s annual meeting was scheduled for April 29 in Austin, Texas.

The AP’s calculations of total pay include salary, bonus, incentives, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year.

The AP’s calculations exclude changes in the present value of pension benefits. They sometimes differ from the totals that companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.