Top executives at Woodbury firm take pay cut

Top executives at the Woodbury-based voice-mail software company Comverse will take a six-month pay cut of up to 20 percent of their annual base salaries, the company said Tuesday.

The chief executive and president, Andre Dahan, will take a prorated six-month 20 percent cut in his $1-million salary, and seven vice presidents will cut their salaries by 10 percent for the same period.

Comverse did not say if the executives' annual bonuses would be affected by the salary cuts.

The salary cut decision, made Friday, was "consistent with recent corporate cost-cutting initiatives," the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission notice filed Monday. The company said Tuesday it is not cutting other employees' salaries. "This is purely voluntary and limited to the individuals named," said Paul Baker, vice president for communications.

The decision came after an announcement last month that former Comverse executives will pay $62 million of a $225-million class action settlement stemming from alleged stock-option backdating.

Most of the money will come from the software maker's former chief executive, who fled the country to avoid prosecution in the backdating scheme, The Associated Press reported. This week's salary cuts are unrelated to the class action settlement, Baker said.