Another Golden Parachute for a CEO
Another CEO has been rewarded for a bad job. We have previously chronicled America’s corporations rewarding its CEO’s with excessive pay packages and golden parachutes even when they have failed in the job they were hired for. It’s a common story of greed & corporate board irresponsibility which keeps being repeated. See posts for 12/29/06 12/19/06 12/14/06 & 12/9/06. Now Home Depot’s CEO Robert Nardelli will be paid millions for the job he did when he took over in 2000 even though the shares have fallen 7% over that time. The media reports that he collected some $240 million in payments during the last six years. This is a man the AFL/CIO reports got the job only after he was passed over to become CEO at General Electric, but whose current payments exceed the present CEO of General Electric. The website also reports that annual cash bonus increased 22 percent, faster then Home Depot’s earnings per share growth or net sales growth. Not only that, but he is reported to have received a golden parachute severance payment valued at another $210 million. This consists of a huge $20 million in cash, $77 million in stock and options valued at another $7 million and includes a forgiveness of a $10 million dollar loan plus benefits. So what is his punishment for having failed to do the job he was hired? It’s said to be an annual retirement benefit of $4.6 million while the employees suffer. Isn’t corporate America wonderful?