Failed executive a bargain at $100 million

Posted Nov 14th 2007 5:43PM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Newspapers, Blogs, Merrill Lynch (MER)

After Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MER) sent its CEO packing with $161 million, the Houston Chronicle's Loren Steffy had a funny proposal for the company: Loren promised to go in as a replacement, fail miserably, and leave for "a mere $100 million." He also wrote that "I hope you find my severance requirements satisfactory and that you will consider me for the position of CEO. After $8 billion this quarter, what more do you have to lose?"

Read Loren's whole letter -- It's absolutely hysterical. But it also underscores an important point: Why exactly are CEOs being rewarded so heavily for abject failure? If they've done so badly do they really deserve the severance?

Executive compensation is a pretty hot topic these days. Even most executives agree that CEOs are overpaid. But the most egregious example is the huge golden parachutes being handed to executives who were terrible.

Tags: CEO, MER, Merrill Lynch, MerrillLynch, severance

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

11-14-2007 @ 8:45PM

Jgoo said...

You lose money on Wall Street as a big-time CEO and you get fired. This is ultimately why O’Neal lost his job. Merrill’s board members, whom the NewsVisual article http://www.newsvisual.com/newsvisual/2007/10/who-should-repl.html identifies, needed to replace O’Neal because he lost huge sums of money. Nevertheless, Mr. O’Neal still leaves as a wealthy and happy man.