Yahoo's CEO Will Receive An Annual Salary of $1

The most highly paid CEO in the San Francisco Bay Area, Terry Semel at Yahoo, has joined the well-known Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin and Larry Page and he now has an annual salary of $1.

But don't start to feel sorry for him or send poor Mister Semel money, because in exchange of the $600,000 annual salary he received last year, the 63-year-old CEO will be given the option to purchase 6 million shares at an exercise price of $31.59. Moreover, he will be eligible to receive an annual bonus of up to 1 million shares.

The agreement between Semel and Yahoo's Board of Directors will be valid until 2008.

The basic principle behind this payment method is that the employer gives the employee the right to buy a specific number of shares of the company's stock during a time and at a price specified by the employer.

There's a minimum period of time the employee has to wait before selling his stock and if the price per stock has decreased since the purchase, then there's no financial advantage.

Terry Semel was born on February 24, 1943 in New York and has been Yahoo's CEO and chairman since May 2001. Previously, Semel spent 24 years at Warner Bros., most noted for his role as chairman and co-chief executive officer.