April 20th 1998

Copyright © 1998 Nando.net
Copyright © 1998 Reuters News Service

PALO ALTO, Calif. (April 19, 1998 08:55 a.m. EDT http://www.nando.net) - Netscape Communications Corp President and Chief Executive Officer James Barksdale waived all but one dollar of his salary and bonus in 1997, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows.

Barksdale received $1 in compensation in 1997, compared with $100,000 in 1996 and $96,154 in 1995.

At the same time, the salaries of most other top Netscape officials stayed the same or increased from 1996 levels.

Executive Vice President and general manager of the comany's Website, Michael Homer, earned $175,000 plus a $100,000 bonus in 1997, compared with $175,000 in base salary and a $53,594 bonus the year before.

Executive Vice President of products Marc Andreessen, earned $150,000 plus a $100,000 bonus in 1997, compared with $150,000 in salary and $49,668 in bonus in 1996.

Barksdale waived his bonus in each of the last three years.

A spokeswoman for Netscape declined to comment on Barksdale's decision to forego pay altogether last year, but said it probably was not related to the company's performance.

"You have to remember his decision would have been made in 1996," she said.

Netscape was profitable in 1996 and throughout most of 1997. In January of this year it reported its first quarterly loss since going public, and cut 400 jobs.

But sources close to Barksdale said that even when the company was performing well, he believed it could put its money to better use than his own paycheck.