Mark Hurd, new chief executive of Hewlet-Packard, gets a $20 million signing bonus. In addition to the structure of the bonus, he is getting one year of free housing and a four year "mortgage interest subsidy." Whatever that is. Hurd is also eligible for a reimbursement for a decline in the price of stock he holds in his former company, covering up to a 20% decline. Finally, as part of his agreement, "all performance goals will be deemed to have been achieved at target" for the second half of '05 and first half of '06.

It seems that Mr. Hurd is getting an enormous signing bonus of cash and stock, additional multi-million dollar incentives, and the board is assuming that he'll meet his performance goals for the next twelve months, guaranteeing him millions more on bonuses. This is in addition to a salary of $1.4 million.

It is good to see that HP is using its money so wisely.

Throwing money around is a great morale booster. Particularly for a company that has made rather large layoffs.