Five of the ten best-paid finance chiefs last year work in the technology industry, as executives at companies from Apple Inc. to Google Inc. were rewarded for increasing profit, amassing cash and minimizing taxes.

Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer earned the most in fiscal 2012 -- a $68.6 million package that dwarfed the $4.17 million awarded to Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Oracle Corp. CFO Safra Catz was second at $51.7 million, making her the highest-paid female leader, while Patrick Pichette at Google was No. 3, with $38.7 million.

The pay recognizes technology executives who finished the year with more than $230 billion in cash and investments -- about seven times the total for the other companies with CFOs in the top ten. Stock awards, common at computer and Web companies, also helped boost compensation for industry finance chiefs as Google and Apple traded near record highs in 2012.

“They’re a key part of the organization and they’re paid accordingly,” said David Larcker, a professor of accounting at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in Stanford, California. “It would be very surprising if their performance evaluation wasn’t heavily weighted to minimizing corporate taxes. That’s their job.”

Facebook Inc.’s David Ebersman and Intel Corp.’s Stacy Smith were among the ten best-compensated. Their counterparts at VMware Inc., Adobe Systems Inc., EBay Inc., and EMC Corp. also made the top 25.

Technology Stocks

Technology shares have outperformed the broader market. The Nasdaq 100 Stock Index, which is weighted toward companies such as Apple and Google, gained 17 percent last year, compared with a 13 percent advance for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

The companies also have lower tax rates. For members of the S&P 500, the average effective rate last year was 41 percent, compared with less than 30 percent for the nine technology companies with CFOs who ranked among the 25 highest-paid last year.

Some technology CFOs are minimizing taxes by recording fewer profits in the U.S., which has a 35 percent corporate tax rate, and more in overseas tax havens, where levies are lower or nonexistent. Many companies are able to accomplish this by moving earnings from intellectual property such as patents across international borders.

While the highest-paid technology CFOs may have benefited from lower tax rates, their compensation was also influenced by such yardsticks as revenue growth and earnings expansion. At Google, sales increased 32 percent to $50.2 billion last year while Apple reported net income that rose 61 percent to $41.7 billion during its fiscal year 2012.

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