Oracle President Mark Hurd’s Big Paycheck

(Reuters) – Oracle Corp offered its new president, Mark Hurd, former head of Hewlett-Packard Co, a salary of $950,000 and a bonus of up to $10 million for fiscal 2011, plus stock options.

Oracle, the world’s No. 3 software maker, named Hurd co-president on Monday, a month after he stepped down from HP following a scandal involving expense reports and a female contractor.

On Tuesday, HP sued Hurd, asking a California court to block him from taking a job with a rival to whom he could reveal HP trade secrets. Oracle and HP compete in the server computer market.

As well as the salary and bonus, Hurd’s offer letter, filed with regulators on Wednesday, said he would be granted an option to purchase 10 million Oracle common shares after the first board meeting following his hire date.

In addition, Hurd can buy 5 million Oracle common shares each year for the next five years, according to the filing.

Hurd on Monday was also named an Oracle director. The filing said the company expects he will be nominated to stand for election to the board at the annual shareholder meeting on October 6.

At Oracle, the 53-year-old Hurd will be responsible for sales and marketing, consulting and Oracle’s global business units, according to a document Oracle filed with regulators on September 8.

Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems for $5.6 billion last year, putting it in competition with HP in the server market.

Oracle shares were unchanged in premarket trading.

(Reporting by Liana B. Baker in New York and S. John Tilak in Bangalore; Editing by Vyas Mohan and John Wallace)