SiliconBeat

Enterprise software developer Selectica (ticker SLTC) threw out its chief executive Friday and got a new one.

The old one, Stephen Bennion, “was aware of or was involved with retrospective selection” of some stock option grant dates (also known as back dating) while serving as the San Jose company’s then chief financial officer, the company said in a press release distributed by PRNewswire. Bennion also received some backdated options himself, but the special committee investigating the problem can’t prove that he backdated his own grant, which they say he never exercised.

As for the back dating activity he was “aware of or was involved with,” the committee
can’t prove he was “intentionally” doing wrong, or that he “understood” the activity
“would result in a misstatement of the Company’s financial results.”

Why would a CFO know about stuff like that?

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How come the boss at the Mountain View Internet-based health insurance agency eHealth, which went public last October, doesn’t own a single share of company stock?

Chief Executive Gary Lauer netted more than $6 million when he exercised his option to buy 295,000 eHealth shares at pre-IPO prices and then sold them the first chance he could in April when the company’s “”lock-up period” — typically a 180-day period after the initial offering when company insiders are not allowed to trade — expired.

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You probably wouldn’t call Landec’s performance in fiscal year 2007 spectacular. For the year ending in May, the Menlo Park company that makes food packaging material saw revenue slide to $210.5 million from $231 million the previous year. Still, the stock did rise, from $9 per share to $13.60 on June 1, and closed at $13.32 on Thursday.

On Thursday, the company filed its proxy, and that performance seemed to be reflected in the bonuses handed out - except for Gary Steele, president, chief executive and chairman. Here’s the bonus list for top executives with name, maximum possible bonus, and actual bonus:

Gary T. Steele: $ 375,000: $ 375,000
David D. Taft, Ph.D. :$300,000: $209,653
Gregory S. Skinner :$265,000: $185,193
Steven P. Bitler, Ph.D.: $190,000: $106,224
Nicholas Tompkins: $250,000: $129,175

So how did every other executive fall short in performance, except the top dog? Hard to say. But fortunately, the blow was cushioned for a couple execs who got a special one-time bonus:

Gary T. Steele: $ 500,000
David D. Taft, Ph.D.: $ 100,000
Gregory S. Skinner: $ 250,000

According to the proxy:

“The above amounts were in recognition of each individual’s exceptional performance on behalf of the Company, particularly their efforts in connection with the successful sale of the Company’s former direct marketing and sales seed corn company, Fielder’s Choice Direct, to Monsanto Company on December 1, 2006.”

By Silicon Valley standards, Tim Harkness, the new chief financial officer at Nektar Therapeutics is getting a frugal pay package. Which is probably a good thing since the San Carlos pharmaceutical company said in May it was undertaking a big reorganization and cutting costs as it tried to save $27 million this year.

A big signing bonus might not sit well with the rank and file.

But weep not, for Harkness, 41, will still get a $440,000 annual salary. He is eligible for a performance bonus that could reach as high as $660,000. He gets 200,000 stock options that vest over four years. And he gets 10,000 restricted stock units.

Founded in 1990, Nektar is currently in trials with a drug to treat pneumonia that is contracted in a hospital. It lost $27 million in its most recent quarter ending in June on $65 million in revenue. And its stock has fallen by about half over the past year.

Goodbye, Steve Bennett. Mountain View-based Intuit (ticker:INTU) surprised Wall Street on Wednesday by adding “former” to Bennett’s title. Bennett had run the tax preparation software company since leaving GE in 2000.

The company didn’t give an official reason. In a press release, Bennett said:

“I’m extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished since I joined Intuit in 2000. Now, with eight successful seasons under my belt, the company solidly positioned for the future, and a CEO successor ready to lead the company, it’s the right time for me to take some time off and explore the next challenge in my life.”

The announcement came just after the company released fourth quarter earnings that seemed to be positive. For fiscal year 2007, Intuit reported $637.6 million in net profit, up 13 percent from last year. Revenue was $2.67 billion, up 17 percent from last year.

Still Bennett will get a nice, soft landing. He’ll remain as CEO until Jan. 1, and he’ll consult until July 2008, the end of Intuit’s next fiscal year.

“Are there any parting gifts?” you ask. Why, Yes! According to an 8-K filed on Wednesday:

• Bennett gets his regular salary the rest of this year.
• A single lump sum severance payment of $550,000.00 (less applicable deductions and withholdings, heh-heh).
• After he steps down, he’ll get a monthly consulting fee of $91,700 through July 2008.
• He’ll still be eligible for his annual bonus next year, which could be as much as $1.76 million.
• The company awarded him another 50,000 options that vest next July.
• He also got another 50,000 restricted stock units that vest next July, but would be worth $1.447 million as of Wednesday.
• Under terms of a separate bonus plan, he can elect to receive 340,000 shares of Intuit common stock in January, worth $9,839,600 as of Wednesday.

Bennett will be succeeded by Brad Smith, 43, who currently runs Intuit’s Small Business Division.

Apparently, it’s hard to escape fate, even in Silicon Valley.

LOGIC Devices (ticker: LOGC), of Sunnyvale, announced in an 8-K filed Wednesday that Kimiko Milheim would be its new chief financial officer. Again. And again.

This would be the same Milheim who resigned in April. At the time, the company filed an 8-K with this explanation:

“Ms. Kimiko Milheim has resigned her position as Chief Financial Officer, effective April 19, 2007. Ms. Milheim has recently been on maternity leave. Effective immediately, Mr. John Merlesena will act as Chief Financial Officer. Ms. Milheim has agreed to provide assistance to Mr. Merlesena during this transition.”

In a brief phone interview, Milheim just said the company never got around to hiring a full-time CFO and in the interim, she was doing some consulting and the company asked her to come back.

This is the second return for Milheim. She stepped away as CFO back in 2003 and consulted for Logic for several months. But the person hired to replace her, “didn’t work out,” she said, and the company convinced her to come back.

BioForm, the San Mateo provider of “injectable dermal filler,” was the second local “medical aesthetics” company in the last week to register plans to sell its shares to the public. (Last Thursday Reliant Technologies of Mountain View, a maker of laser-based “skin-rejuvenation” systems, estimated that it would raise $95 million in its initial public offering.)

Like Reliant, BioForm has yet to turn a profit but its sales doubled in fiscal 2007 to $47.4 million, which coincidentally is almost equal to its accumulated losses through June 30.

The company says it had about $17.6 in cash on hand as of the end of June and burned through about $12.4 in fiscal 2007.

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There may be people in Silicon Valley who are underpaid. But Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com’ chief executive, chairman, founder and all around social consciousness raiser, isn’t one of them.

Okay, technically Benioff isn’t in the Valley, he’s in San Francisco. But, whatever. His shadow looms large enough for us to consider him part of the extended family. He cut his teeth at Oracle. And then made a big splash when Salesforce.com (ticker:CRM) went public in June 2004.

Since then, Benioff has sold 11,133,200 shares of Salesforce.com stock to collect $377,017,139. And according to a string of Form 4s filed recently, that figure includes another 210,000 shares he’s sold so far this month, to rake in another $8.9 million.

And lest you think he’s nearing the end, Benioff still holds 15,961,006 shares, worth about $637,003,749.46 as of mid-day Wednesday day with the stock trading at $39.91 per share. The stock is up about 17 percent from one year ago.

We wouldn’t blame Silicon Image’s new chief operating officer, Paul Dal Santo, if he’s kind of hoping the company’s share price stays depressed just a little bit longer.

You see, his July 23 offer letter from the company included an option grant for 200,000 shares. Silicon Image (SIMG) shares closed that day at $7.64. On August 3, the designer of semiconductors used to store digital content reduced its revenue forecast for the year. Its shares took their biggest hit in more than five months, dropping $1.78 to $5.26.

Dal Santo, who comes to the company from AMD, where he was general manager of its handheld products division, officially began work Monday, August 20, when SIMG shares closed at $5.34, 30 percent lower than the price on the day his job offer was made. That would be swell, if his options were priced that day.

Also on Monday Silicon Image’s chief executive, Steve Tirado, gave the company a thumbs up by buying 20,000 shares on the open market for $5.31 each, or $106,200, and raising his ownership to 140,000 shares. Today, the company’s shares jumped 9 percent, their biggest one-day gain since March. Even nicer for Dal Santo, right?

Not so fast.

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It’s been an ugly summer at PDL BioPharma. The Fremont company has been engaged in a brutal fight with a major shareholder that triggered a wide-ranging internal investigation of its chief executive.

That struggle came to a head Monday when the company announced that the investigation had cleared chief executive Mark McDade. And then, McDade said he would step down anyway, citing “the personal toll created by the unsubstantiated rumors and related investigation.”

In a press release issued Monday, and filed in an 8-K on Tuesday, McDade said:

“The allegations and public innuendo have been damaging to PDL, to PDL board members and employees, and to me personally. This extensive independent investigation should put these allegations to rest. However, given the personal and professional toll, I have decided to step down as CEO of PDL, and as a member of the board, by the end of this year.”

Yikes. So just what the heck has been going over there?

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