This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2006. Vote for Barry Diller, or to check out the other overpaid CEOs.
I'm sorry, but I so totally win. What I mean to say is, Barry Diller so totally wins. He is the undisputed worldwide best freakin' ever King of the Overpaid!
There are many reasons someone might see fit to award their company's CEO a Whole Lot of Money. Perhaps that CEO oversaw a banner year for the company, with record profits and growth in sales and maybe the launch of a whole new enterprise. Maybe that CEO got named as Most Powerful this or Most Influential that. Maybe the CEO played less golf than any other CEO in the whole U.S. of A. Maybe -- this company might award its CEO, say, $10 or $20 million in salary and bonuses and another $20 or $40 million in stock compensation. I mean, that would be a lot of money for a job well done, right?Ha ha. Hahahaha. HAHAHAHAHA! That's Barry Diller laughing at you. Because in one year, as CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI), during which by all accounts his company did a whole lotta nothing, he made: $295 million.
More than four times the next-most-highly-paid CEO for 2005. That doesn't even count the stock options from Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE), which he spun off during the year, which by one calculation has Diller clocking in at nearly $500 million.
What does IAC/InterActive do? Mostly, it owns the Home Shopping Network, with lots of other little properties like Match.com, Ticketmaster, Evite, Citysearch, and LendingTree. Actually these are mostly really great companies but I think for pay like this Diller should at the very least be hosting the overnight cubic zirconia and Bedazzler marathon on HSN once a week.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-07-2006 @ 1:25PM
HUGO said...
HELLO EVERY 1, THIS KIND OF BONUS OR A GIVEAWAY, IS A DISGRACE TO THE SHAREHOLDERS, NO MAN OR ANIMAL IS WORTH THIS KIND OF MONEY, AND HE SHOULD BE ASHAMED TO EVEN ACCEPT THIS MONEY, I CAN ONLY BLAME THE IDIOTS SHAREHOLDERS TO LET THIS HAPPEN.
12-10-2006 @ 4:58PM
stella said...
This guy is making more than $1million a day. I will like to know what exactly he does in a day to earn that kind of income. However you look at it, he is overpaid. There cannot be any explanation for this. It is insane in a world where only very few people make a million in a lifetime.
12-16-2006 @ 4:45PM
Ken said...
Compared to Barry Diller, A-Rod's (TX/NYY) contract, 10 yrs for 250 million is steal. I'd never thought I'd live to say that! Just to think that Diller made 500 million in just 12 months and he doesn't have to share any of that with an agent. Perhaps the Board of Directors to IAC should resign and collectively seek psychiatric group counseling at their own expense. Clearly, the Board which initially approved the salary and stock options didn't have the shareholders best interests but only that of Mr. Diller's.
12-19-2006 @ 3:22PM
Martin said...
"It was the best of times." "It was the worst of times."
12-19-2006 @ 4:25PM
Bill said...
Grow up jealous ones...that is capitalism...if he can get it, he should take it....I don't hear the shareholders complaining...only you whiny bitches...
12-19-2006 @ 11:46PM
Merry Grant said...
OMG! No one is worth 10's of millions of dollars unless it is the founder of a company.
So much of this money comes from the labor of the underling workers.
Why not reward the workers instead?
They will work even harder and the company will make even more money.
12-20-2006 @ 7:40PM
Maureen said...
I blame every one of us who does not challenge our elected representatives to put a stop to these massive abuses by white collar thieves. They all play golf together, and they all vote each other unconscionably excessive salaries and bonuses -- while the average, even advanced-degree college grad workers, cannot afford to send their kids to college and see their health and other benefits eroding away. We have returned to the conditions of the late 1800's/early 1900's in this country and we need another Teddy Roosevelt to get us back on track with the environment and fair treatment of workers by reigning in the "robber barons". "Capitalism", Bill, is only positive for a society when it takes place within a meritorious framework. If business and the economy are doing so well, am I the only one who sees the vacuum? Where is all the money going? It's getting sucked up to the top for no reason, or few reasons, other than who's playing golf with whom (saw the results of that study in one of the major business magazines). Let's spread the wealth here in our country, or we have no business going to anyone else's country and telling them how great we are, blah, blah, blah. Treat your own with dignity and fairness before you go to other lands and try to expand your financial wealth and empires there. And while we're at it, we need to raise our voices against the gerrymandering which has virtually taken away the right to vote from Americans. We have been so busy working hard to raise and support our families, that we've been distracted from the criminal realignment of our voting districts to, in essence, invalidate the votes we cast. Yet we tell ourselves we live in a representative democracy. WAKE UP, everybody, turn off the reality TV and do some research, read in-depth news magazines and NPR, channel 13, news programs that don't have talking heads. Inform yourself, google it, and find out how they've taken our country away from us and let's get it back. Most of all, bombard your (excuse the pun) elected representatives with letters and e-mails to tell them these are the things that are top on your list to correct. And start getting involved; Thomas Jefferson said: "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. (1816)" And here's an even scarier one: "The preservation of liberty depends upon the intellectual and moral character of the people. (John Adams)" They are among those who risked their lives and fortunes to form this country only 219 years ago, and look what the oilmen and the lowest common denominator among us have done to our noble experiment. ENRON has overshadowed how boards and CEO's have exponentially increased their draining of corporate wealth, so that people have looked away while long-time workers have been betrayed by the theft of their earned pensions, diminishing benefits, etc. They are the people who built companies up, did all the heavy lifting, sustained performance and service --- THEY should be seeing their FAIR SHARE of profits, as should all shareholders and stakeholders. If we don't all DO something (write, e-mail, protest, talk about it to everyone you see), they will get away with it and the future looks bleak indeed.
1-04-2007 @ 10:36AM
Dash Gastineau said...
Maureen had wonderful comments, very appropriate and with an excellent understanding of what drives this type of compensation and the moral imperative to stop it!
Rank and file stock holders, those who are not on the board of directors, have little or nothing they can do to stop this type of debauchery. Remember when the directors of Home Depot did not even show up for the annual stock holders meeting? The CEO did show up but refused to answer any questions regarding the company. He talked about his family, fishing and sports but said not a word about the company's poor performance for the past 5 years!
Now we read that they award the CEO $250 million for quitting. Home Depot stock has declined steadily but had a 2% increase upon the CEO's quitting.
I would like to know what kind of difference that $250 million would make to those hourly employees making less than, $15.00 an hour if divided up between them? Maybe it would make their co-pay on insurance, treat the family to a night out for dinner and a movie, or make college affordable for their children. What life style difference did the $250 million make to the CEO? Can he now send his kids to school? Will his wife now be a stay at home mom? Will he now replace the 10 year gas guzzler with a new mini van?
The board of directors are so ingrown, so incestuous rank and file stock holders have no control. It takes legislation. Incentives are fine but the lowest paid worker is easier to incent than a multi million dollar CEO.
1-07-2007 @ 12:59AM
Lauren said...
This is sickening! And immoral! My sister is probably going to die because she has no health insurance and can't afford the chemo and radiation she needs to kill her cervical cancer and these fatcat bastards are getting paid HOW MUCH? They should be ashamed of themselves.