ValueClick Execs Got $12.4 Million Pay Raise Despite Missing Performance Targets

(MoneyWatch)  Although ValueClick is suffering horribly in the recession (Q4 revenue down; a loss of $256 million), its five top executives are not. They received $19.4 million in compensation between them last year. That was a $12.4 million pay raise from the year before, when those five executives received only $6.9 million in total compensation, according to a ValueClick filing with the SEC.

(UPDATE: See correction on this item below.) The numbers are skewed because chief admin officer Samuel Paisley did not receive a full year of compensation in 2008 (he resigned last March); and CTO Peter Wolfert only came onto the payroll in 2008. (BNET's calculation ignores Wolfert's package. With it, ValueClick's top six execs received $23.9 million between them.)

Much of the compensation received was in the form of stock options and restricted stock, whose value cannot be realized until the future, either when the stock rises above a certain price or due to a vesting schedule.

However, despite ending the full year with flat revenues and a full-year loss of $214 million, the pay packages total estimated value of the compensation of Chairman James Varley, CEO Tom Vadnais and CFO John Pitstick all more than doubled.

The company's proxy statement says that the executives actually underperformed did not meet their "full-achievement targets":

The full year targets were not achieved by any of the [named executive officers] in 2008. The quarterly targets were achieved, in general, in the range between the mid-point targets and full-achievement targets.

Here's a summary of the value of their total compensation:

• Name, title, 2008 compensation, 2007 compensation
• James R. Zarley, chairman, $5.5 million, $2 million
• Tom Vadnais, CEO, $6.2 million, $1.7 million
• John Pitstick, CFO, $3.2 million, $754,000
• Carl White, CEO Europe, $3.8 million, $1.2 million
• Samuel Paisley, ex-chief admin officer, $474,000, $1.2 million
• Peter Wolfert, CTO, $4.4 million, NA
• Source: SEC. Numbers are rounded.

Because of the underperformance, none of them got cash bonuses. Instead, they all got stock options (except Paisely, who left). The options were valued at more than triple the year before (except for Paisley).

Correction: The original draft of this item gave incorrect totals for the combined compensation of the executives. It also left out the compensation of Carl White, CEO of Europe. Apologies for the screwup.

• BNET's previous coverage of the web ad economy:
• ValueClick Q4: Recession Arrives on the Web and It Ain't Pretty
• Q4: Web Ad Economy Enters Recession; Display Ad Prices Decline
• Q3: As Traditional Ad Economy Sinks, Web Ads Still in Growth Mode
• Web Ad Economy Faces Recession -- Possibly
• Q&A: ValueClick's Ardis on Where Client Money Is Going