Netscape CEO Forgoes Salary, Cash Bonuses

Netscape Communications Corp. on Wednesday said Chief Executive James Barksdale chose not to receive any 1997 salary or cash bonuses, as the company’s stock price has fallen by two-thirds in the last year.

Barksdale, who also is Netscape’s president, believes that his compensation should be linked to the long-term interests of the company and its shareholders, Netscape said in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He owns about 5.3 million shares, or 6% of the company’s shares outstanding.

Last year, Barksdale took a salary of $100,000, and chose not to receive a bonus.

Mountain View-based Netscape, a leading provider of Internet-access software, has seen its stock price drop amid concern about growing competition from Microsoft Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. Netscape is moving to sell more sophisticated software to corporate customers for Internet access, a market where Microsoft and IBM are entrenched.

Netscape shares rose 94 cents to close at $27.06 on Nasdaq. They reached a 52-week high of $75.25 last May. The record high for Netscape was $87 in December 1995, adjusted for a 2-for-1 stock split.

Netscape this quarter is scheduled to begin shipping its new line of browser software and server products, used to publish and relay information on the Internet. The software includes more complex e-mail and groupware software, which is used to exchange documents among employees.