Nofsdad
Joined: 06 Jul 2003
Posts: 7077
Location: Central CA
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Posted: Wed Dec 01, 2004 5:40 pm Post subject: A little more on what "the best of us" are up to
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http://www.detnews.com/2004/business/0412/01/C01-20429.htm
Excerpt:
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Here's a company whose shares have tanked 38 percent since it pulled its Vioxx arthritis drug from the market Sept. 30 because of links to heart problems. Yet, in the name of "retention," Merck is giving 230 executives rights to one-time payouts equal to as much as three times their annual salary and bonus should Merck be acquired.
Heck, Merck's directors even agreed to cut checks for their select execs even if another company only bought up 20 percent of its shares. Nice work, even if it leaves Merck shareholders out in the proverbial cold. |
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And business types still wonder why average folks, politicians and most of the news media remain cynical about executive pay, restructuring that's designed to cut costs but mostly cuts non-executive jobs and the boardroom's role in protecting the interests of shareholders?
The actions of Merck's board, just like Kmart's before it, telegraph that what really matters is the welfare, come what may, of those inside some board rooms -- not those outside whose cash funds their decisions.
However they try to spin the payouts, however much large swaths of corporate America gripe about the restrictive Sarbanes-Oxley laws and their impact on business decisions, one thing's for sure: The new post-corporate-scandal world order isn't making a lot of executives poorer.
"The arrogance in situations like this hasn't changed that much," says Frank Glassner, CEO of Compensation Design Group Inc. in San Francisco. "This tells Merck shareholders and the executive pay marketplace to 'do as we say, not as we do.'" |
Evil? Define evil. While you're at it, define "working their asses off for what they have". 
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