Yahoo! CEO Doesn't Deserve High Pay

By Eric Jackson, Senior Contributor

05/05/10 - 09:18 AM EDT

Stock quotes in this article: AAPL , YHOO , GS , JPM , GOOG , ADBE , ADSK

Carol Bartz was paid $47.2 million last year -- her first -- as CEO of Yahoo!(YHOO).

Since it was announced that she would assume the top job on Jan. 13, 2009 through today, Yahoo!'s stock is up 29%. Over that same time, the Nasdaq is up 60%.

For her $47.2 million in pay for 2009, Bartz might argue that she created $5 billion in market cap through today as Yahoo!'s market cap went from $18 billion to $23 billion.

But she under-performed the market by 52% through today. This suggests her leadership led to the company destroying $5 billion in value (as the company should have a $28 billion market cap today if it just kept pace with the industry).

Comparing her pay and performance to other corporate CEOs also leaves you scratching your head.

Much criticized Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs(GS) was paid $9.6 million for 2009. He created $33 billion in market cap over the same period as Bartz.

Goldman's stock price out-performed the market by 117% over this time. So, he creates 6.6 times the market capitalization value as Bartz and got paid one-fifth what she did. How does that math work?

Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase(JPM) was paid $9 million for 2009. He created $68 billion in market cap over the same period as Bartz, and JP Morgan Chase out-performed the market by 100% over this time.

Let's take a tech example. Steve Jobs of Apple(AAPL) is not a fair comparison, as he received total comp of $1 last year (just as he did in the two previous years).

So, let's take his COO, Tim Cook, who made $14 million in total comp last year. He/Steve created $160 billion in market cap over the same period as Bartz, and Apple out-performed the market by 329% over this time.

Look at Google(GOOG). After all, hasn't it had a disastrous year in terms of stock price under-performance, exiting China, etc.? Google CEO Eric Schmidt was paid $9 million for 2009. He created $69 billion in market cap over the same period as Bartz. And it turns out that he/the company has out-performed the market by 17% since Bartz was hired.

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