Sun exec's Microsoft bonus

What's the Microsoft/Sun Microsystems settlement worth? For one former Sun executive, the answer, at least in part, is $100,000.

An SEC filing today by Sun contains an interesting footnote about Mark Tolliver, the former Sun executive vice president and chief strategy officer, who left the company shortly after the Microsoft deal was announced. The footnote is attached to a line about Tolliver receiving a bonus of $527,760 for Sun's 2004 fiscal year. Explains the footnote: "Includes special recognition bonus in the amount of $450,000, including $100,000 related to our settlement with Microsoft."

The filing shows no other Sun executive receiving a bonus explicitly related to the Microsoft settlement. But it makes some sense in the context of reports that Tolliver played a significant role in the process. Among other indications, Tolliver was the Sun executive who signed the settlement documents on behalf of the company, alongside Steve Ballmer's signature for Microsoft.

And a BusinessWeek magazine story after the settlement was announced recounted a funny story involving Tolliver and Bill Gates, who during the negotiations made a secret visit to Sun's headquarters when the office was closed for the July 4 holiday:

The famous exec escaped notice, until he and Sun's chief strategist, Mark Tolliver, went for a bathroom break and ran into a Sun staffer who had come to the office, dog in tow. "He looked Gates straight in the eye, and he had the most stunned look on his face,'' recalls Tolliver.

Posted by Todd Bishop at September 22, 2004 02:28 PM