Technology - March 17, 2000

Amazon.com Inc. awarded stock options that could be worth a combined $2 billion in two decades to two top executives who joined the biggest Internet retailer last year. President Joe Galli, formerly with toolmaker Black & Decker Corp., and Chief Financial Officer Warren Jenson, hired from Delta Air Lines Inc., also got cash bonuses of more than $7 million each for signing with Amazon.com. The packages “answer the issue of what corporations are having to do to attract the talent they need,” said Judy Fischer of Executive Compensation Advisory Services in Alexandria, Va. The option grants are unusual not only for their size, but also the terms during which the executives can use the options to buy shares. The options can be exercised at different points over the next 20 years, while most companies grant 10-year terms.

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