EBay CEO's compensation rose 22 percent in 2010

The 2010 pay package online marketplace operator eBay Inc.'s CEO rose 22 percent to $12.4 million from the previous year, according to an Associated Press analysis of a Monday regulatory filing.

John Donahoe, 50, has led eBay since March 2008, when Meg Whitman retired. Prior to that, he served as the company's head of marketplaces.

According to a proxy statement eBay filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Donahoe received a salary of $920,673 in 2010, down 1 percent from the year before. He received a bonus of $736,538, up 68 percent year over year, and a performance incentive of $1.2 million, down 30 percent from $1.7 million in 2009.

The CEO was awarded stock valued at $5.6 million and options worth $3.7 million when they were granted - a 26 percent and 50 percent increase, respectively.

Donahoe's other compensation rose 42 percent to $245,655. Most of this was for personal use of a company plane.

His 2009 compensation package was valued at $10.1 million.

The AP's calculation of executive pay includes salary, bonus, incentives, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards as of the day they were granted. The calculations exclude changes in the present value of pension benefits, making the AP total different in most cases than the total reported by companies to the SEC.

San Jose-based eBay is best known for its namesake website, where users can buy and sell anything from alphabet blocks to zippers through its auction and fixed-price "Buy it Now" formats. The company also owns online payment business PayPal, which lets people transfer money online and has grown swiftly even as eBay's marketplace has struggled to bring in and keep buyers and sellers.

In 2010, eBay continued to work on improving eBay.com - a process it is still working on - by doing things like cutting upfront listing fees it charges sellers, improving its search engine, revamping its home page and ramping up its focus on fashion with the launch of a clothing and accessory site, fashion.eBay.com. The year ended with a healthy holiday quarter, as enthusiastic shoppers helped spur growth in the marketplace and PayPal businesses.

During 2010, eBay earned $1.80 billion, or $1.36 per share, compared with $2.39 billion, or $1.83 per share, in 2009. Revenue climbed 5 percent to $9.16 billion. EBay had 94.5 million active users at the end of the year - up 5 percent from the 2009 fourth quarter.

EBay's stock rose 18 percent last year, ending December at $27.83 a share. On Monday, it rose 11 cents to close at $30.58.