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Mattel paying Eckert $11m
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May 26, 2000: 2:36 p.m. ET
New CEO to receive package of benefits, options and other perks
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Mattel's new Chief Executive Officer Robert Eckert will receive about $11 million in salary and benefits during his first year on the job, the company said in a proxy filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Eckert, 45, the former head of Philip Morris' Kraft Foods, was appointed to a three-year term as CEO of the El Segundo, Calif.-based maker of Barbie and Hot Wheels cars. His package is similar to that of other senior executives including former CEO Jill Barad, whose $50 million severance package shareholders have criticized as excessive.
Mattel will pay Eckert a base salary of $1.25 million a year along with annual
bonuses worth up to twice that amount, based on his performance.
Eckert also will receive between $2 million and $8 million in long-term incentives.
 The company also paid Eckert a $2.8 million signing bonus as compensation for a management bonus he forfeited by leaving Kraft. He also will receive 685,468 shares of restricted stock as compensation for a grant he forfeited on leaving Kraft. Those will vest on June 30.
In addition, Eckert has the option to buy three million shares of Mattel stock at $11.25 a share, the fair market value of Mattel's common stock May 16, the date he was hired. Of those options, 25 percent were immediately vested and an additional 25 percent will become vested on each of his anniversary dates.
Eckert also will receive a $5.5 million loan due May 19, 2003, at 7 percent interest. He also is eligible for full medical benefits as well as an automobile allowance and an automobile club membership, relocation expenses, temporary living expenses for up to one year and the opportunity to sell his current home through a relocation firm.
Should Eckert lose his job, he will receive a severance package worth slightly less than the $50 million package Mattel's board gave Barad, and which drew severe criticism from shareholders and New York State Comptroller Carl McCall.
McCall, the sole trustee of the New York Common Retirement Fund, which owns more than 1.2 million Mattel shares, said, "it is disturbing to hear that the board has elected to reward the person who presided over Mattel's precipitous decline."
In addition to a percentage of his salary, Eckert's severance package would include forgiveness of his loan.
Eckert's hiring ended Mattel's three-month search for a top executive to help revive profits and boost the company's lagging stock.
Mattel's board ousted Barad in February following months of sagging profits, much of which had to do with her purchase of Learning Co., Mattel's poor-performing software unit, which now is up for sale.
Analysts praised Mattel's hiring of Eckert, saying they felt confident he would find a buyer for TLC and fill several vacant management positions.
Shares of Mattel (MAT: Research, Estimates) slipped 1/4 to 13/16 in trading Friday. 
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