This paper analyses two main issues. First, the determinants of the top-executives compensation of the CAC40s’ listed firms. Second, the impact of the equity-based compensation on the firm market and accounting performance. Our results show that stock-options grant for CAC40s’ top-executives are uncorrelated with its determinants and have no impact on the firm performance over the period of analysis. These results support the theoretical approach of the managerial power and entrenchment.