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Computer Maker President’s Total Compensation Nearly $2.2 Million : Apple’s Sculley 1st in High-Tech Salary Derby

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From a Times Staff Writer

Here’s another survey of who gets paid the most. This time, 45-year-old John Sculley of Apple Computer comes out on top.

Sculley, the Apple president and chief executive who also came out on top in a power struggle earlier this year with company co-founder Steven P. Jobs, collected nearly four times as much in salary and bonus last year as the average high-technology executive, according to Electronics Business magazine.

Sculley’s take of nearly $2.2 million compares to an average cash compensation of $571,000 for the top 100 executives in the U.S. electronics industry, the magazine said.

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Even the average sounds like a lot of money, but other surveys have found that electronics firms are pretty ordinary compared to captains of some industries. Tobacco companies have been found to pay the most and electric utilities the least.

And, by other measures, Sculley’s pay looks paltry even in the computer business. According to an executive compensation survey by Business Week magazine, founder Edson D. de Castro of computer maker Data General took home a cool $8 million last year--most of it in stock gains.

In drawing up its list, the electronics magazine didn’t count stock options, long-term financial payments and other financial perks. In Sculley’s case, however, his 1984 pay was inflated by a bonus that he negotiated before joining the firm from Pepsico in 1983.

Apple agreed to pay Sculley $2.5 million, in addition to his salary and ongoing bonuses for meeting financial goals, for joining the company. He took $1.5 million of that in 1983 and the remaining $1 million last year, according to Apple’s annual proxy statement.

Excluding that recruitment bonus, Sculley last year got $564,068 in salary and a $600,000 bonus tied to the company’s 1984 performance. That added up to $1,164,068, which would put him in the No. 3 spot on the Electronics Business list behind John Dixon, 65, chairman and chief executive of E-Systems, a Dallas military electronics firm, at $1,624,000, and W. Jerry Sanders, 48, president of Advanced Micro Devices, a Sunnyvale, Calif., chip maker, at nearly $1,190,000.

Ranked fifth was John Opel, 60, chairman and then-chief executive of Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM, the world’s biggest computer company, at $1,034,000. IBM is about 20 times larger than Apple.

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IBM, Control Data, Motorola and Xerox each placed five executives in the top 100. Advanced Micro Devices and Hewlett-Packard had four and Avnet, Molex, Seagate Technologies, Sperry and Wang Laboratories each placed three.

The survey covered a period of prosperity and healthy profits in most high-technology fields. Late in 1984, however, a slump began that this year has slashed earnings and forced dozens of firms to close plants, lay off employees and in some cases trim salaries. HIGHEST PAID HIGH-TECH EXECUTIVES For 1984; excluding stock options, long-term financial payments and other benefits.

Salary and Company bonuses John Sculley, president Apple $2.20 million Computer John Dixon, chairman E-Systems $1.62 million W. Jerry Sanders, president Advanced $1.19 million Micro Devices Anthony Hamilton, chairman Avnet $1.05 million John Opel, chairman IBM $1.03 million W. Michael Blumenthal, chairman Burroughs $950,000 Bernard L. Schwartz, chairman Loral $884,160 Leon Machiz, president Avnet $856,000 Pieter C. Vink, chairman North $840,000 American Philips Charles E. Exley Jr., chairman, president NCR $831,000

Source: Electronic Business magazine

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