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Report: Cisco CEO cuts pay
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April 24, 2001: 7:23 a.m. ET
Chambers reported to reduce salary to $1 a year in 'symbolic gesture'
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - John Chambers, the chief executive of Cisco Systems, is cutting his $157 million annual salary to $1 as a "symbolic gesture" to company shareholders and employees in the wake of a precipitous drop in the stock price, the London Times reported Tuesday.
Separately, a vice president at Cisco, the world's leading maker of Internet equipment, has been arrested and accused of embezzling more than $10 million, the company confirmed Monday.
Cisco's share price has fallen from a high of $77 to as low as $13.18 over the last 12 months. In addition, the company said last week that it would cut 8,500 jobs, more than it originally estimated in March.
The Times, citing documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said Chambers received a basic salary of $323,319 last year, and a bonus of $1 million. Additionally he earned $155.9 million by exercising share options.
Chambers has another $779 million worth of exercisable share options in Cisco and a further $346 million in options that have yet to mature, the Times reported.
Cisco officials were not immediately available to comment on the report.
Separately, the company said in a statement Monday that it notified authorities after Robert S. Gordon, a vice president of business development at Cisco, was alleged in an FBI affidavit to have fraudulently acquired more than 30,000 shares of stock in Internet Security Services Group Inc., according to wire service reports.
The affidavit alleges Gordon sold those shares after transferring them into a company he started in the Bahamas. "We brought this situation to the attention of law enforcement authorities. We are assisting their investigation and support their prosecution efforts," Cisco said in a statement released Monday. A Cisco spokesman said Gordon no longer works there and the company would not provide phone numbers for the former employee.
Cisco (CSCO: Research, Estimates) shares closed Monday at $17.33, down $1.82. 
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