Merrill Lynch CEO wants 10 Million bonus?!?!?

[darien87]

This just proves that rich people are either crazy or just plain out of touch with reality.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081208/bs_afp/financeeconomyuscompanycompensationmerrill_081208205631

Let me get this straight, your company almost goes under, but luckily gets bailed out by B of A, and you think you deserve an extra $10 million dollars?!?!?!

I wonder if I could try that at my job. "Hey boss, I know sales are down, and in this economy, I'm lucky to just have a job, but I think I deserve another $100,000, what do you say?"

 

[highfigh]

He backed down a couple of days ago.

Q "Hey- what is that clanking sound?"
A "It's the CEO of Merril Lynch walking down the street".

 

[darien87]

He backed down a couple of days ago.

True. But I can't believe he had the balls to ask for it in the first place.

 

[A/VUSMCSGT]

Someone's smoking crack!!!!

 

[rnatalli]

Why not ask? He might actually get it. Stranger and larger things have happened.

 

[Buckeye_Nut]

Ya gotta love class warfare........

The "do nothing" lower-class outrage against the "doers".

 

[jamie2112]

Amazing just amazing

 

[darien87]

Ya gotta love class warfare........

The "do nothing" lower-class outrage against the "doers".

You can always count on Buckeye Nut for a whacked-out opinion that makes no sense. Still feeling sore over McCain and Palin having their asses handed to them I see.

 

[jamie2112]

Ya gotta love class warfare........

The "do nothing" lower-class outrage against the "doers".

What????????

 

[darien87]

What????????

That's Buckeye Nut for ya. Don't pay attention to him.

I love how he calls the Merrill Lynch CEo a "doer". Yeah, he was such a "doer" that he ran his company right into the ground. Kinda like the President that Buckeye Nut supports.

 

[jamie2112]

Agreed Darien....

 

[fredk]

I can't believe that congress didn't have the balls to demand that execs of companies receiving bailouts pay back the last 5 years of salary and bonus!!

The same should go for Senior auto execs. I doubt it would ever happen though. These are the guys that fund elections.

 

[Matt34]

Someone's smoking crack!!!!

"It's a helluva a drug."

 

[aberkowitz]

That's Buckeye Nut for ya. Don't pay attention to him.

I love how he calls the Merrill Lynch CEo a "doer". Yeah, he was such a "doer" that he ran his company right into the ground. Kinda like the President that Buckeye Nut supports.

Darien- Let's get something straight here... I agree that Thain should not have been asking for $10 million, but he did NOT run Merrill into the ground- that was done under the leadership of Stan O'Neal. Thain took over for O'Neal in the fall/winter of 2007 and did quite an admirable job to attempt to save Merrill from the collapses of Bear & Lehman. In fact, BofA was actually looking to purchase Lehman before Thain convinced them to look at Merrill instead. This saved a lot of jobs (Merrill has a huge workforce since they are a brokerage/retail focused shop) and deferred mass layoffs for some time.

Thain did a lot of good at Merrill, and if the capital markets had actually been open for the past 18 months, I believe he probably would have turned them around without needing to have them bought.

That said, asking for a $10 million at this point in time was probably not the smartest thing to do. At some point in the future I hope he gets the chance to run another company, hopefully one that's not totally broken with no tools to fix.

 

[darien87]

Darien- Let's get something straight here... I agree that Thain should not have been asking for $10 million, but he did NOT run Merrill into the ground- that was done under the leadership of Stan O'Neal. Thain took over for O'Neal in the fall/winter of 2007 and did quite an admirable job to attempt to save Merrill from the collapses of Bear & Lehman. In fact, BofA was actually looking to purchase Lehman before Thain convinced them to look at Merrill instead. This saved a lot of jobs (Merrill has a huge workforce since they are a brokerage/retail focused shop) and deferred mass layoffs for some time.

Thain did a lot of good at Merrill, and if the capital markets had actually been open for the past 18 months, I believe he probably would have turned them around without needing to have them bought.

That said, asking for a $10 million at this point in time was probably not the smartest thing to do. At some point in the future I hope he gets the chance to run another company, hopefully one that's not totally broken with no tools to fix.

Point taken. Now his asking for such a huge bonus doesn't seem COMPLETELY assinine. However, he was already receiving a substantial salary. So for him to ask for an extra $10 million in bonus money, when people are being laid off left and right, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. He made his money, why does he need to stick it to the stockholders?

 

[Nomo]

Regardless of whether or not he was one of the corporate execs responsible for the collapse of ML doesn't excuse the timing, or the (non)coincidental amount he asked for.
I'm not sure if we should file this under

Category A: WTF was I thinking
Category B: Oops, just bad taste. sorry
or
Category C: Hang me on Wall Street and stone me to death

My vote: Wait for it..... Get me the rocks.

 

[aberkowitz]

Regardless of whether or not he was one of the corporate execs responsible for the collapse of ML doesn't excuse the timing, or the (non)coincidental amount he asked for.
I'm not sure if we should file this under

Category A: WTF was I thinking
Category B: Oops, just bad taste. sorry
or
Category C: Hang me on Wall Street and stone me to death

My vote: Wait for it..... Get me the rocks.

The explanation of the timing is actually kinda simple- I-banks generally close their fiscal years at the end of November, compensation decisions are made in early to mid December. This is the time when comp committees are meeting to determine the bonuses of all employees, starting at the top, Again, not defending him here, just an explanation about why this is coming out now as opposed to a month from now or a month ago.

 

[allargon]

In fairness, if WaMu's CEO could bank millions for a few weeks/months on the job, Merill's CEO understandably wanted his piece of pie, too!

 

[highfigh]

Actually, if they all thought he could pull ML out of the fire, they should have included bonuses based on his performance. His asking for it strikes me as "Can I have some too?". Even if he made them profitable now and doesn't get the bonus, he'll have all the offers he can deal with soon enough. People who turn companies around are well known in a short time.

He may be really good at what he does but he should have negotiated this before he signed on.