$500,000 Severance for Autobytel.com Founder

Pete Ellis, the founder of the Internet auto shopping service Autobytel.com Inc. in Irvine, was paid $500,000 in severance when he stepped down in June to strengthen the company’s credibility in the market, according to regulatory filings by the company.

The disclosure was made this month in a report to regulators that the company issued in announcing its intention to raise $72 million in an initial public offering. After the offering, Ellis would still be the largest shareholder, owning a 20% stake in the company, which had $21 million in revenue in the most recent 12 months.

At the proposed offering share price of $16, the company would be valued at $286 million.

Mark Lorimer, who was promoted to chief executive from chief operating officer when Ellis stepped down in June, earned $465,000 in salary, bonuses and other compensation and was awarded long-term options for 750,000 shares.

That compares favorably with the compensation paid by other Internet companies that went public recently. At Irvine-based Broadcom Corp., President and Chief Executive Henry Nicholas received $165,000 in salary and 375,000 long-term options. The two co-founders of Broadcast.com were paid $120,000 each, although they also own substantial chunks of the company.

Last year’s stock market darling, EBay Inc., paid Chief Executive Margaret Whitman an annual salary of $175,000, although she also received 2.4 million long-term options.

Dwight Decker, chief executive of the Rockwell International spinoff Conexant Systems Inc., had a total compensation of $364,000 and options for 30,000 shares.

Of course, if Autobytel’s stock performs as well as those four companies, any compensation might be well deserved. Broadcom, Broadcast.com, Conexant and EBay now have market values of $5.4 billion, $2.3 billion, $1.8 billion and $7.9 billion, respectively.

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Jonathan Gaw covers technology and electronic commerce for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7818 and at jonathan.gaw@latimes.com.