Sirius Execs Get Seriously Paid

[rickaren]

Sirius Execs Get Seriously Paid, According to Filings

October 1, 2008

The salaries of newly appointed Sirius XM Radio executives were revealed today by the company in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Dara F. Altman, Sirius' chief administrative office and an executive vice president, will get $446,332 for each year of her three-year contract. The 50-year-old former XM executive and Discovery Communications veteran will also be eligible for annual bonuses.

If she is fired or leaves "with good cause," Altman will receive a golden parachute of two years worth of salary -- or, $892,664 -- plus the higher of her last two bonuses.

James Rhyu, the former controller for XM, was appointed following the merger of XM and Sirius as the new company's chief accounting officer. Rhyu, 38, will receive an annual base salary of $325,000. He, like Altman, signed a three-year contract and is eligible for annual bonuses. If Rhyu is fired before July 27, 2009 or leaves with good cause, he'll get two years of his base salary and a target bonus in a lump sum payment. That's $650,000 -- at least.

The disclosures of executive pay, required by the SEC, come amid questions about XM's ability to pay off or refinance its $1.1 billion in debt due next year amid the credit crisis. Prospects for weak consumer interest in buying new radio receivers and poor sales of cars equipped with the satellite radio devices has pushed the company's stock down to startlingly low levels. Shares were at 65 cents, about 16 percent of its one-year high of $3.94.

LINK:Sirius Execs Get Seriously Paid, According to Filings - Post I.T. - A Technology Blog From The Washington Post - (washingtonpost.com)