Liberty's Maffei Tops List of Best-Paid CEOs

Gregory B. Maffei, boss of Liberty Media Corp. (LINTA), topped The Wall Street Journal list of best-paid CEOs, taking home $87.1 million.

Maffei's compensation was four times larger than his 2008 package.

Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle Corp. (ORCL), came in second, with a pay packet of $68.6 million. Most of that took the form of options, valued at $61.9 million.

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The survey covers companies with annual revenue worth more than $4 billion that filed proxies between Oct. 1 2009 and Sept. 30 2010.

The survey, carried out with management-consultants Hay Group, showed that annual bonuses jumped by almost 11% to a median of $1.67 million.

Overall, median compensation for CEOs gained 3%, as measured by salary, bonuses and the awarded value of stock, options and other long-term incentives.

Ray Irani, CEO of Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY), who was the best-paid CEO in an April study, fell to third position. He came away with $52.2 million. In October, Occidental instigated a new pay policy that cut his maximum compensation by almost three-quarters.