So given the interest, it seems only right to post an update with Hurd’s last salary numbers for fiscal year 2009: $24.2 million. A story in the Mercury News this week covered the basics:

“The filing showed that Hurd, 53, got a salary of $1.3 million, down from his $1.5 million salary the year before.

His base pay was cut 20 percent in 2009 as part of companywide pay cuts announced in February. But Hurd recouped the difference with his $1.2 million bonus, which HP said included the amount its executives’ pay was reduced under the pay-cut plan. At the time of the cuts, Hurd said that all employees might wind up making up the difference in the form of bonuses if the company performed well.

Hurd received a $5.3 million bonus the year before.

HP, which is based in Palo Alto, said some executives’ bonuses were hampered by the fact the company’s revenue in all business units were below internal targets for bonuses set in January 2009, “at a time when the full extent of the economic downturn that had begun in the fall of 2008 was not known.”

Now, the story says that was down 29 percent from the before. Still was he worth it? Let us know what you think.

“Before addressing specific questions, I’d like to share some general thoughts. It appears that some employees have already decided the program has no value to them; others have decided the opposite and are vocal in their support. I have a simple request of all of you - don’t be lemmings (i.e., don’t blindly follow others)! By all means read all opinions voiced, but don’t be swayed by them. Opinions offered are just that; opinions. They reflect personal views based on an individual’s experiences.

Let’s rewind a bit and see what’s going on here.

Back in May, Intel announced the options exchange. The Wall Street Journal reported:

“Intel Corp. plans to allow employees to trade in underwater stock options, emulating moves by many other technology companies in the wake of the stock market’s sharp decline.

The semiconductor giant, in a proxy statement filed Monday, disclosed that 99% of options held by its employees are currently under water — meaning they have no value because the company’s share price has fallen below the exercise price of the options.”

Tough times. So why all the whining? Sounds like a generous deal, right?

According to Taylor, apparently many employees don’t think it’s generous enough. One question from employees: “Why can’t Intel make the exchange ratios more attractive for employees?”

Taylor’s answer: “To fulfill our commitment to stockholders we will calculate the ratios using Black-Scholes and they will be what they will be. To change this methodology would not only be unlawful it would be unfair to our non-employee stockholders who cannot themselves participate in any type of exchange program.”

Yes, wouldn’t want to go breaking laws regarding options grants, would we? No.

Next question: “Why is Oct. 2000 the cut-off date for eligible options, which means that my ~$60 options that are expiring in April are not eligible?” In other words, some employees who got options during the go-go days of the dot-com boom will get nothing and like it.

Taylor responds: “The value of those 2000 underwater options is next to nothing as they have a high exercise price and a very short time to expiration.”

Taylor ends with a call to remember that stock options are supposed to be an incentive:

“Some employees may incorrectly interpret this frequency of communication as a signal that this program is a “large gift.” Please remember that the stock option exchange program is not designed to provide immediate compensation for underwater options. Rather, it is designed to give employees an opportunity to benefit from potential stock price growth over the long term and for the company to benefit from the retention, time and dedication of our most valuable resource–you.

I am proud that Intel is offering this program. It is the right thing to do for our employees; and I believe it demonstrates the company’s investment in you. I hope you feel the same.”

Meanwhile, Intel’s stock closed Thursday at $19.41, up from the $15.56 close on May 1.

Over the weekend at home, my wife received just about the last thing I ever expected to get from Google: A coupon in the mail. I’ve posted photos of it above. The envelope also contained a helpful brochure explaining how Google AdWords works. Pictures of that are also above.

We were both surprised and amused. Google using snail mail to send me a discount? Huh?

Here’s a couple thoughts on why I find this so odd. And I’ve submitted questions about the offer to the Google press office and will include any response I get here. The coupon offers $100 discount for Google AdWords. The page to redeem the coupon is here.

The coupon was actually sent to my wife who formerly was a documentary filmmaker. Back in the late 1990s, she made a film called “The Golf War.” She used to have a site for the film at www.golfwar.org, which is how I suppose Google got her name and home address.

The film examined how a small village was trying to fight efforts by the government of the Philippines to seize its land and build a golf course. Oddly enough, the offer is not addressed to my wife, but rather, Joseph Ejercito Estrada, otherwise known as the former president of the Philippines.

The coupon site says the offer is non-tranferable, so if you see President Estrada, let him know we have a coupon for him.

Now, it’s not that I don’t think coupons are valuable, or a good way to reach potential customers. Heaven knows, newspapers have used them for decades and in tough times, people find them even more useful. But Google using coupons? Or anything in print for that matter? It seems to go against all the efficiencies that Google boosters point to when they marvel at the elegance of its business model. Why is the company of the future using the methods of an industry (newspapers) that everyone keeps telling us is dying?

Here’s the other thing that jumped out at me: The offer expires Sept. 30. After that, the value drops to $75 and then runs out Nov. 75. Why is that significant? Well, Google seems to be in a big hurry for me to use this. And Sept. 30 just happens to be the end of the current fiscal quarter. So does that mean Google is having a tougher quarter than expected? I’ve asked the Google press folks to respond to that question.

In the meantime, if you got one of the Google coupons, or know someone who did, post in the comments below and let me know whether you plan to use it. And whether you think it’s odd or not that Google is using coupons.

UPDATE: Monday afternoon, I received an email with the following statement from a Google spokesperson:

“We have many efforts in place to reach out to entrepreneurs and business owners who haven’t yet discovered that online advertising can be a powerful, measurable and cost-effective way to find potential customers. From time to time over the past few years, we’ve offered promotional coupons to new AdWords advertisers through various means, including via email, U.S. mail, industry events and more.“

Elise Ackerman, one of the contributors to SiliconBeat, has left the Mercury News. Elise had been covering the Internet, among other thing.

Also, Jack Davis, our data manager, accepted a buyout. For those of you who have been following this blog for awhile know, Jack was the main force behind Docu-Drama. Jack and I started Docu-Drama as a stand-alone blog back in late summer 2007 to focus on securities filings of valley companies. Earlier this year, Docu-Drama was folded into the re-launch of Silicon Beat.

Jack’s departure will bring an end to official Docu-Drama posts.

I wanted to acknowledge Elise and Jack’s work here, and say thanks to those of you who have been reading their stuff.

The loan bears an interest rate of 15 percent and becomes due June 30, 2010. Until then Kana is required to make payments of $90,000, plus accrued interest, on the first of each month beginning in September.

Once the loan becomes due, or once Kana pays it off, whichever comes first, the company will then have to pay Agility a $350,000 “fee” on top of everything else. Even without the 15 percent interest, that’s a very handsome — some might say usurious — rate of return.

The loan is secured by all of Kana’s assets, although Agility would behind Bridge Bank in a line of creditors should Kana go belly up.

Kana is in the midst of dealing with an effort by a major investor that wants the company to “consider significant changes in business strategy and corporate governance,” including selling the company and cutting expenses “immediately.”

Severance-related charges are expected to be about $4.5 million, while annual cost savings from the move are expected to be about $9 million, according to Altera’s filing with the SEC.

Last month Altera’s stock price got a boost after the company reported a pro-forma profit of 20 cents a share, beating the average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey by 24 percent.
The company generated $90.8 million in cash from operations last quarter, down from $226.8 million in the year-before quarter. It ended its second quarter with $1.27 billion in cash, up five percent year-over-year.

However, a statement in support of the proposal is credited to Kenneth Steiner, about whom no further information is provided. He states that similar proposals at Occidental Petroleum
FirstEnergy and Marathon Oil “won impressive 2008 support”.

He goes on to say that the merits of the proposal should “also be considered in the context of the need for further improvements in our company’s corporate governance and in individual director performance.”

Among the governance issues Steiner cited were the fact that, until he stepped down as chief executive, CEO John Thompson “was both our Chairman and CEO” — most governance experts believe the role of chief executive and chairman of the board should be held by separate individuals — and that at the same time he held two outside board seats, raising an “over-extension concern.”

Stein names three of Symantec’s current board members who also serve on board’s of company’s who have received “D” grades on their corporte governance practices from the Corporate Library, including Michael Brown, who also serves on the board of Nektar Therapeutics, Geraldine Laybourne, also a director on Electronic Arts’ board, and Robert Steve Miller who serves on the board of Delphi.

In its own defense the current Symantec board points out that the company’s current policy of requiring a 25 percent holding by a shareholder who wants to propose a special meeting is sufficient. It also cited its declassified board, meaning that all members stand for re-election each year along with the fact that the company has no “poison pill” in place to help protect itself from unsolicited offers.

Infinera added that, even though Level 3 said it intends to continue to purchase products and services from it, the adoption of a new vendor “will impact the revenue we will receive from Level 3 beginning in the first half of 2010.”

Level 3 accounted for 25 percent of its revenues in the first half of 2009, when sales fell 58 percent year over year.

The meeting, which was pushed back from July 9 to Aug. 3, won’t be postponed again, according to a filing Xtent made today with the SEC.

Xtent said that while it “continues to hold discussions and negotiate terms and conditions with these parties and others” it has not “reached agreement with any of these parties on key terms that would cause” it to delay or postpone the special meeting any further.

In January Xtent, which was developing drug-covered stent systems, decided to lay off all but seven of its 122 employees and engaged Piper Jaffray & Co. to help it explore “potential strategic alternatives.”

In March 2009 Xtent received authorization to market its products in the European Union and certain other countries, but could not do so without additional financing, which it was unable to locate.

“We are extremely pleased with the Court’s Markman Order.  We remain confident in our position concerning Microsoft’s infringement of the patents at issue,” said VirnetX Chief Executive Kendall Larsen in a statement. “While the outcome of this and any legal matter is unpredictable, we believe the Court’s Markman Order is another significant step towards the successful resolution of this litigation and further validates VirnetX’s ongoing commitment to the enforcement of our intellectual property and protection of our investment in patent-protected licensing and research and development.”

Investors evidently agreed. VirnetX stock jumped $1.52, or 102 percent, to $3.

In June, VirnetX announced retaining the Texas-based law firm McKool Smith to lead its litigation against Microsoft. The firm has a track record of successful verdicts against Microsoft.