Salesforce entices ExactTarget execs with $20M in awards

Salesforce.com has extended job offers to ExactTarget Inc.'s top brass—and sweetened the pot by dangling awards of restricted stock topping $20 million.

Salesforce disclosed the offers to four ExactTarget executives in a filing late Wednesday afternoon with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Under the proposed employment agreements, Scott Dorsey would remain CEO of ExactTarget, Scott McCorkle would remain president of technology and strategy, Andrew Kofoid would remain chief operating officer and Timothy Kopp would remain chief marketing officer.

Dorsey is slated to receive the largest restricted stock award, $7.5 million. McCorkle and Kofoid would receive $5.5 million, and Kopp would get $1.75 million. The awards would vest over four years.

The filing does mention two other ExactTarget senior executives, Chief Financial Officer Steven Collins and Chief Administrative Officer Traci Dolan. A Salesforce spokeswoman would not comment on the omission.

ExactTarget will remain an independent subsidiary of Salesforce, which on June 4 announced plans to buy the Indianapolis marketing software firm for $33.75 per share—a 53-percent premium over the previous day. Salesforce says in a new filing that the cash deal is valued at $2.6 billion, a shade more than it said when the deal was announced.

Dorsey wrote in a memo to employees the day after that announcement that he intended to stay with ExactTarget and would be reporting directly to Salesforce's CEO Marc Benioff. He said Salesforce intends to invest in the local operations. About 1,000 people work in Indianapolis with another 700 in other states.

Earlier SEC filings show ExactTarget’s top six executives collectively stand to gain $92.5 million on their stock options when the deal closes.

The windfall represents nearly one-third of the nearly $300 million in option gains that ExactTarget's employees will collect.