DEARBORN, MICH. - Ford Motor Co.'s top two executives received nearly $100 million worth of stock for their performance during 2009 and 2010, years in which the company's profits and stock price surged.
The awards, disclosed in regulatory filings late Monday, are considered excessive by some Ford assembly line workers. But Wall Street may not see it that way. Ford's stock price rose 46 cents, or 3.3 percent, to $14.47 on Tuesday.
CEO Alan Mulally, credited with propelling the company from staggering losses a few years ago to profits of $2.7 billion in 2009 and $6.6 billion last year, received stock valued at $56.5 million before taxes.
The man who hired Mulally, Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr., got stock worth $42.4 million, according to paperwork filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Salaries and other compensation were not listed and will be revealed later this year.
The Dearborn, Mich.-based company was in financial peril late in 2006 when Bill Ford removed himself as CEO and hired Mulally away from Boeing Co. Ford Motor Co. lost $12.6 billion that year.
Under Mulally, the company mortgaged assets including its blue oval logo to borrow more than $23 billion, allowing it to weather the recession. It avoided filing for bankruptcy or following General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC in taking government aid.
Ford sold or shuttered five of its seven brands, closed or sold a quarter of its plants and cut its global workforce by more than a third. It plowed the savings back into well-received new vehicles such as the Ford Fusion sedan and Ford Edge.
