Intel Chief Nets $94.6 Million in Stock Options

Intel Corp. Chief Executive Andrew Grove made $94.6 million last year by exercising stock options, handily leading the pack of corporate chiefs who benefited from buying stock at steep discounts. Grove profited from a sharp increase in Intel’s stock price, buoyed by record revenue and profit at the world’s largest maker of computer chips. Grove exercised options to buy about 1 million shares last year, paying preset prices ranging from $6.94 to $61.38 a share, Santa Clara-based Intel disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Those prices are far less than the shares’ market value, which ranged in price from $50 near the beginning of 1996 to a high of about $137 toward the end of last year. Grove also earned nearly $2.6 million in bonuses, $425,000 in salary and additional compensation of $347,500, Intel said. Grove’s reward far exceeds the No. 2 earner of stock options, H.J. Heinz Co. Chief Executive Anthony O’Reilly, who made $61.5 million last year by exercising options. He was followed by Sterling Williams, head of software maker Sterling Software Inc., who realized $56.8 million.