Craig Conway is walking away from PeopleSoft Inc. with far more than his widely reported $18 million severance package.

The ex-PeopleSoft boss takes away cash, stock and unexercised stock options with a total value today of nearly $37 million, according to an analysis of PeopleSoft's Securities and Exchange Commission filings by the East Bay Business Times and Lafayette human resources consulting firm Syzygy Consulting Group. And Conway, who was dismissed as CEO by the board of directors on Sept. 30 in the midst of the Pleasanton software maker's 16-month battle with would-be acquirer, Oracle Corp., could pocket $64.2 million.

The value of that package - which includes 78,000 shares of common and restricted PeopleSoft stock, as well as more than 7.7 million stock options Conway has accumulated during the past five years - is based on Oracle's still-standing $21 per share offer for PeopleSoft. PeopleSoft shares closed Oct. 20 at $20.27.

But if PeopleSoft's share price rises, for example, because Oracle renews its previous $26 per share bid, the value of Conway's total takeaway from PeopleSoft would grow to nearly $61 million.

"That's not bad pay for doing a bad job," said David Broman, CEO of Syzygy. He says the severance package is the most generous he's seen among East Bay companies in several years.

Most media reports have put an $18 million figure on Conway's severance package. That's the number that PeopleSoft has quietly floated, although it is never stated outright in its SEC filings. PeopleSoft spokesman Steve Swasey would not comment for this story.

But according to the analysis by the Times and Syzygy, Conway's severance package is actually worth about $20.3 million today. That includes $3.2 million in cash from PeopleSoft immediately paying Conway two years' worth of salary and bonuses; $12.7 million in cash immediately paid to Conway for 650,000 shares of restricted stock that would not have vested until 2006; and 2.54 million stock options that had not vested as of Sept. 30 but are now given to Conway free and clear.

The accelerated vesting of stocks and options to Conway that would otherwise have returned to PeopleSoft was not part of the May 1999 employment agreement that Conway signed when he joined PeopleSoft as president, before ascending to CEO four months later.

Instead, these provisions were granted in a revised May 27, 2003, contract that was signed just days before Oracle Corp. launched its hostile bid for the Pleasanton software maker on June 6.

Broman attributes the rich payout to the headiness of the dot-boom era, when it was a buyer's market for up-and-coming CEOs like Conway.

"This severance package looks extremely lucrative in today's light, but at that time it wouldn't have made anyone roll their eyes," he said.

He also looks askance at the timing of the 2003 revision to Conway's contract just days before Oracle announced its bid.

"I can't think of any other motivation (for Conway) other than to further entrench himself in case of an acquisition," he said. "But anytime a CEO does that, it's usually for self-survival, not necessarily what's best for the organization."