Senior managers at Cambridge Heart Inc. will be eligible for bonuses of up to 50 percent of base pay if they achieve certain milestones aimed at turning the company’s fortunes around by the end of the calendar year.
According to a filing with the federal Securities and Exchange commission, the executives must finalize one or more distribution agreements; complete the development of a previously announced transition to selling the Microvolt T Wave Alternans test as an OEM product; achieve some sort of cash balance by the end of the year (the exact terms of this milestone were not disclosed); and the company must successfully raise more capital.
Each of the goals are weighted separately by the board of directors. If the senior management team achieves the goals the rewards will break down accordingly: CEO Ali Haghighi-Mood will receive a cash bonus equal to 50 percent of his salary and CFO Vincenzo LiCausi will receive a cash bonus equal to 30 percent of his salary.
According to Cambridge Heart’s most recent proxy statement, Haghighi-Mood made a base salary of $275,000 in 2008. He voluntarily forfeited his bonus last year and didn’t exercise any of the roughly $1.1 million in options he held, as their strike price was “under water” — Wall Street parlance for options when the price they’d fetch on the market is less than their value when granted.
LiCausi earned $155,000 in base salary and earned a $23,000 bonus, also declining to exercise any of his under-water options, which had a paper value of $245,000.
It’s been a difficult year for the company so far, as it was forced to cut nearly a third of its employees during a weak first quarter, during which revenues fell 30 percent.
Editor’s note: This story was revised to more accurately describe Cambridge Heart executive’s remuneration during 2008.