CEO Sam Palmisano Is IBM's $18 Million Man

IBM chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano took home $17.9 million in compensation in 2006, according to a proxy statement the company filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The package is comprised of salary and bonuses worth $6.8 million, $7.8 million in performance share grants, and $3.3 million in stock options, according to the filing. The disclosure is in keeping with new SEC rules that require publicly traded companies to provide a more precise breakdown of executive compensation.

IBM's proxy statement also revealed that Palmisano received personal time on company-owned aircraft worth about $370,000.

Despite the lavish figures, Palmisano doesn't rank among America's highest paid CEOs. The top man at the country's 10th largest company, as measured by revenue, didn't appear on a list of the 100 highest CEOs recently published by the Washington Post.

Some investors might argue that the omission is justified. Under Palmisano's five-year watch, IBM's share price has declined 4%, while the S&P 500 index has risen 24% over the same period.

Palmisano has presided over IBM's divesture of its storied PC business to a Chinese company and massive growth in the company's offshore presence in India, where it now employs more than 50,000 workers.