ABIOMED (ABMD)

Base Salary

We pay our named executive officers base salary to provide a baseline level of compensation that is both competitive with the external market and commensurate with each employee’s past performance, experience, responsibilities and skills. We generally target base salaries for our named executive officers around the median of our external market peers and then make adjustments based on the factors described above, as well as the relatively higher cost-of-living in the greater Boston area where we are located. In particular, based on his year’s of experience, long tenure at our company, and the additional quality and regulatory responsibilities that he has compared to his peers at other companies, we pay an additional premium to our Senior Vice President of Engineering and Quality. The Chief Executive Officer recommended and the Compensation Committee approved base salary increases for fiscal 2009 for all of our named executive officers, other than our Chief Executive Officer, in the range of 3% to 12%, based on performance and the prior year’s salary. Our Compensation Committee approved a base salary increase of 5% for fiscal 2009 for our Chief Executive Officer. These increases came a year after we had limited salary increases to a modest 2% for all of our named executive officers. For fiscal 2010, our Compensation Committee recently decided to increase the base salary of three of our named executive officers, by 5% to 11%. The salaries of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer for fiscal 2010 were not changed. Our Chief Financial Officer joined us during the last few months of fiscal 2009, and his salary also reflects an amount we thought would be competitive in recruiting him to join our Company.

Base Salary

We pay our named executive officers base salary to provide a baseline level of compensation that is both competitive with the external market and commensurate with each employee’s past performance, experience, responsibilities and skills. We generally target base salaries for our named executive officers around the median of our external market peers located in our geographic area and then make adjustments based on the factors described above. The focus on peers in our geographic area was intended to adjust for the relatively higher cost-of-living in the greater Boston area where we are located. The CEO recommended and the Compensation Committee approved base salary increases for fiscal 2009 for all of our named executive officers, other than our CEO, in the range of 3% to 12%, based on performance and the prior year’s salary. Our Compensation Committee approved a base salary increase of 5% for fiscal 2009 for our CEO. These increases came a year after we had limited salary increases to a modest 2% for all of our named executive officers.

Base Salary

We pay our named executive officers base salary to provide a baseline level of compensation that is both competitive with the external market and commensurate with each employee’s past performance, experience, responsibilities and skills. The Company generally targets base salaries for our named executive officers around the median of our external market peers and then makes adjustments based on the factors described above. In fiscal 2007 the Compensation Committee of the Company selected and the Board of Directors agreed with the following companies as market peers: Arrow International Inc., Datascope Corp., Volcano Corporation and Thoratec Corp. The CEO recommended and the Compensation Committee approved base salary increases for fiscal 2008 for all of our named executive officers of 2%. This modest increase was meant to reflect the fact that the Company is not currently profitable and to foster fiscal discipline.