Apotheker gets close to $10m severance pay from HP

Former HP chief executive and president Léo Apotheker will receive nearly $10m in severance payments and another $3.5m in stocks, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The filing points to a "severance payment in the amount of $7.2m payable in installments over the next 18 months", as well an annual bonus of $2.4m which will still be paid to Apotheker despite his failing to complete a full 12-month stint at the the company.

HP will also provide Apotheker with "accelerated vesting of the 156,000 shares of restricted stock" worth a cool $3.5m, along with relocation and housing assistance and an additional $300,000 "for any loss Mr Apotheker incurs on the sale of his California residence".

The filing also reveals that incoming HP chief executive Meg Whitman will receive a base salary of just $1 a year, a far cry from Apotheker's $1.2m.

The figures emphasise just how desperate the HP board was to get rid of Apotheker, who they saw as taking the company in the wrong direction.

The former SAP boss made a number of radical decisions toward the end of his tenure, including the closure of the webOS division despite HP having spent $1.2bn for Palm just a year before.

Apotheker was also behind the purchase of UK software firm Autonomy and the possible closure of HP's PC business, which has yet to be finalised.

HP has a history of upheaval at the top, having paid off Apotheker's predecessor, Mark Hurd, to the tune of more than $12m after he was embroiled in a sex scandal.

Carly Fiorina, who was forced out in 2005, received over $20m.