Wang CEO awarded $8 million to stay

Wang (Billerica, MA, http://www.wang.com

) CEO Joseph Tucci was handed an $8 million thank you note from its board of directors following the $260 million sale of Wang's software unit to Eastman Kodak (Rochester, NY, http://www.kodak.com). Under the premise of a "retention bonus" because Tucci declined an offer to head Novell (Orem, UT, http://www.novell.com), Wang acknowledges Tucci's role in the recent divestiture.

Analysts speculate that Wang would have been ill-prepared to part with Tucci, having just lost Robert Weiler, its software unit president, to the new Eastman Software. Further, William Ferry, Wang's senior VP, was recently named president of Banyan Systems.

Novell has announced the hiring of Eric Schmidt, formerly with Sun Microsystems, as its new CEO.