Joseph Tucci could potentially receive $39 million in severance

Joseph Tucci, chief executive of EMC.Jason Grow

EMC Corp.’s longtime chief executive Joseph Tucci could benefit from Monday’s blockbuster $67 billion sale to Dell Inc. in two ways.

First, Tucci could potentially receive $39 million in cash severance and accelerated stock awards and options if he is let go without cause following the merger, according to EMC’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission in March.

Other EMC executives are also in line for similar golden parachutes, including $31 million for David Goulden, CEO of EMC information Infrastructure, and nearly $24 million each for Bill Scannell, president of EMC’s global sales and customer operations, and Howard Elias, president and chief operating officer of EMC’s Global Enterprise Services unit, if they are also let go without cause after the deal is completed.

Second, the deal could lift the value of Tucci’s own stock holdings. Tucci owned or had options to buy a total of 2.7 million shares, according to the SEC filing, that could be valued at more than $90 million under the terms of the takeover deal with Dell. The Dell deal valued EMC shares at $33.15 per share, a significant premium above EMC’s recent trading price. EMC shares were trading at less than $26 per share before news of the potential rumor leaked out late last week.

Like many CEOs, Tucci has become a significant shareholder in his company largely because much of his pay was in the form of restricted stock and stock options. An EMC spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

Before Tucci joined EMC, he engineered the sale of Wang Global, previously known as Wang Laboratories, where he was chief exeuctive. In that deal, Dutch information technology giant Getronics NV bought Wang, once one of the most prominent computer companies in Massachusetts, for about $2 billion in cash in 1999. Tucci joined EMC in January 2000 and became chief executive in January 2001.