Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), even as it loses hundreds of thousands of customers, continues to pay its executives astonishingly high salaries and overall pay packages. This according to analyst group Glass Lewis & Company.Top managers at the telecom company were awarded pay valued at $74 million in 2007, even as the company saw massive customer defections to the competition and was preparing to toss out former CEO Gary Forsee in the process. Sounds like some recent AIG shenanigans, doesn't it? No wonder Main Street no longer trusts Wall Street. Although corporate compensation abuses are almost the norm recently, it's amazing shareholders don't stand up and scream when companies not doing well are lavishly rewarding management.
Of course, Sprint spokesperson James Fisher defended his employer by stating "It's very important to consider that 2007 was a highly unusual year because of compensation that was paid to an exiting CEO, as well as sign-on compensation paid to a new CEO ... we had significant other severance charges for executive changes during the year." Severance charges -- for a management team that ran the company into the ground. I guess all those contracts signed by incompetent management were too hard to bypass since shareholders can't blow holes in those golden parachutes.
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Reader Comments (Page 4 of 4)
10-12-2008 @ 1:03PM
SGM said...
now i see why nextel charge so much for the phone service to busy taking care of those top crooks .it mr bush fault he is afraid to jail these people because he is in bed with all the cos on wall street. all that talk mr bush give you on tv is the biggest bull s i have ever heard . mr bush speaks with a fork toung. he has been for the rich from the frist day he step in the white house so people shift the blame mr bush way dont let him off the hook this easy . cos will never stop stealing as long as they never do a day in jail. rember this country only seand the poor to prisons in this country .even the vice prisd bot away with shooting his buddie in tex so u see we are living a f up country. the govt is smart as long as they keep whits and blacks hating each other they have you by the balls wake up people this country is being run by ever one but you .now think about that
10-11-2008 @ 7:14PM
juan said...
Everyone talks about this companies and the money. How about places like Walgreens, look at what their stock has done recently. The employees are being told to work less hours to save money for the company and of course the prices havent gone down, along with the employees insurance benefits from insurance company Aetna have gone up. Yet with everything the company has done to supposedly save the company money the management just recently got their are you ready for this BONUSES. Yeah way to go if I was a major stockholder and watching my stock take a dive what would I say.
10-11-2008 @ 7:16PM
Cecelia Lebus said...
The most overpain "director of aviation" is Keith Shelburn of DuPont. He has a side business for years on the internet grossing big bucks, and shows at the office on a hit or miss basis, and collects a huge salary from DuPont. As a retiree, I resent such blatant in your face performance. Perhaps Corporate America should take a closer look at the big salaried employees. I suggest this across the board. Time to tuck the salaries of those taking advantage.
10-12-2008 @ 7:26PM
leavittation said...
We have a minimum wage, why not a maximum wage?
10-11-2008 @ 7:26PM
Jack Schneider said...
How come so many smart people are so wrong, now I Understand why Nero played his Violin while Rome burned. Was it Stalin who said give the capitalist enough rope they will hang themselves
10-11-2008 @ 7:28PM
mike said...
As for the govt allowing the execs getting their golden parachutes. The obvious excuse for them is probably the fear of these ex-executives suing someone. Well if the govt is bailing out these companies have the govt tell em NO MONEY and let em try and sue the govt. The news always talks about foreign money being frozen by the govt. have the govt freeze the accts of these executives and tell them you know what we changed our minds and you dont get any money afterall and if you dont like it sue.
10-11-2008 @ 7:32PM
BOOWAH said...
Those CEO's that took enormous amounts of money as their companies were failing, are guilty of treason! They are to be rounded up, imprisoned, and when found guilty, hanged. Their wealth is to be confiscated, whether in overseas accounts or domestic, and distributed to the stockholders they fleeced! You'll notice I haven't used the most useless word in the English language...should, because it always gives the guilty the choice of compliance. These thieves have no choice...comply or else be hunted down by vigilanties without recourse of proving their innocence.
10-11-2008 @ 7:32PM
dee said...
Don't you think it's a little bit late to bitch? I mean shit, we all saw it. No one was bitching about big payoffs for the Ceo's back when stocks were rallying. Why now? Why bitch about the mortgage crisis? Didn't you see it back then? I saw it all. I was bitching back then and when I spoke out this is what i got back in return, LOL! Well who is laughing now?
10-17-2008 @ 11:26AM
Robert said...
Wow! I wish I could position myself for a job like that. Get hired, earn millions of dollars for being a complete incompetent, run the company into the ground then quit or get fired and get a bonus of millions more! I know people who got fired just for being late a few too many times! These idiots bankrupt a company and make more money than most people make in an entire lifetime!
10-11-2008 @ 7:38PM
dee said...
OK here is my next LOL post. Those of you who are voting for Obama are sealing the deal of the USA for the Arabs. Just tell me where is this 1 billion dollars that Obama has received to run his campaign coming from? Who is standing behind this man many of you hail to? I suggest you go look. I dare not say for just as many of you LOL at me when I tried to warn you, YOU will do the same now. Please go look at 3 of the top dudes in Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, sitting right in Obamas circle right on his campaign circle. Lets not even talk about Arab middle east money. They could not kill us with bombs right after 9/11 so they get us from within by destroying our markets from dubai and making sure one of their own gets elected right here in our own country! Go ahead and run to the election booths. Go ahead and vote for him but remember the day you read my post. This is the single most worst decision you can make. You not only destroy yourself but you also destroy me. I am staying home. I refuse to vote this year. Nothing and NO one will fix this mess. WE can thank Barney Franks, Christopher Dodd and Christopher Fox and lord knows sitting in first place is Alan Greenspan. Thank you all!
10-11-2008 @ 7:40PM
Diane said...
I knkw people who retired from "Big Blue" IBM and never get a cost of living raise in their pensions; yet the former CEO gets $11,000 a day pension. Why in the world do you need an $11,000 a day pension? People are losing jobs, homes, their health, and much more; yet these psychopaths feel no remorse or are not ashamed to feel entitled to this monetary reward. Shame on them!
10-11-2008 @ 7:42PM
mike said...
These ex-execs should be imprisoned. At least Gates does something with all the money he has. These thieves probably cleared more money in less time than he did. Used car salesmen and insurance people should be rejoicing ,they now have someone lower on the scum scale.
10-11-2008 @ 7:46PM
Jack T. said...
Dennis said. You are sooo right,it,s all about the money,the question is, how much money is enough?,I guess the one who dies with the most money win,s in the end,I wish that we could start over from scratch,and nobody is over anyone else,we all will have an equal chance in life,wouldn,t it be nice?
10-11-2008 @ 7:58PM
deborah said...
I also have Sprint and they have the worst customer service probably because I always get to speak to someone in India. I am tired of speaking to these people with heavy Indian accents. That is also one of our biggest problems so many jobs went to India and Americans were laid off. They should try laying off all the Indians that took away american jobs.
10-11-2008 @ 7:57PM
gill bowman said...
Congress has served it's members best interest for years (retirement, ins, raising their own salaries, miss using public trust, ...) securing a future for themselves while claiming to serve the American people; their self-serving votes ,for favors, allowed the export of America's productivity, undermining America's financial future.......but the Congressman's has secured his future, American's will pay him through retirement for doing nothing; Dollar for dollar how would that compare with executives of failing companies who get unearned bonuses.
Gill Bowman
10-11-2008 @ 10:29PM
linda said...
Nextal/sprint is the worst service and when my contract is over I am out of there. Their CEO's should be embarrassed.
10-12-2008 @ 8:55PM
Robert Barr said...
Telecoms in the U.S. are so entirely miss managed it borders on lunacy to invest a penny in any of them.