Broadcom options investigation now full of sex and drugs.....why not rock-n-roll too?

Jon Ogg — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 12:10:00 EST

Filed under: Bad News, Law, Scandals, QUALCOMM Inc (QCOM), Broadcom Corp'A' (BRCM)

Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ:BRCM) has found itself in an interesting position in its ongoing options backdating probe. You couldn't make up a more raunchy CEO story without getting a bunch of NBA thugs running the show. CNNMoney has the most detailed article on this so far.

Ex-CEO Henry Nicholas isn't just in a bind over options. He's now being probed over drug use and other excessive vice use. His former assistant and bodyguard (who worked on and off from 1999 to 2006) has reportedly filed a civil lawsuit earlier this year saying that Nicholas forced him to use illegal drugs. The ex-CEO is also accused of spiking clients' (that's plural) drinks with powdered ecstasy and even offering prostitutes to customers on trips in Las Vegas. The Wall Street Journal has said that Nicholas' attorney has denied the allegations and said these were fabricated to extort money.

Broadcom has taken roughly $2.2 Billion in charges against earnings, which so far looks to be the largest restatement based on the widespread options probes. It is more than rare that you would get to see drug and prostitution charges lumped in with an options probe. Oddly enough, the stock market is treating this as old news with the stock up marginally on the day. You have to wonder if Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) is trying to find some of these alleged customers to testify for their ongoing patent fights between the two companies. I know I would.

When you read stories like this, you wonder if it is even possible to make some of this stuff and to make it sound even remotely as good.

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Broadcom options investigation now full of sex and drugs.....why not rock-n-roll too? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 13 Jul 2007 12:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bargain CEOs, hogs and value destroyers

Peter Cohan — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 12:04:00 EST

Filed under: Yahoo! (YHOO), Exxon Mobil (XOM), IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI), Coach Inc (COH), Broadcom Corp'A' (BRCM)

The 10 highest paid CEOs are amply rewarded -- earning an average of $58 million in the last year -- but they are not producing equally: three bargain CEOs created shareholder value on the cheap, three hogs added shareholder value but got paid too much to do so and four value destroyers were paid big bucks to lose shareholder value. Finding those bargain CEOs could be a great way to look for investment opportunities if you think that they can keep creating shareholder value at the same rate as they have in the past. (A map of the location of these CEOs is here.)

I calculate that in the last year, these 10 CEOs presided over the creation of $12 billion in stock market value -- their $58 million average CEO pay works out to 0.5% of that $12 billion in additional stock market value. But lest you get too excited, the average stock price of the 10 companies increased 12% while the S&P 500 rose 15%.

If CEOs were paid for value creation, I would expect all 10 of these companies to be contributing to that $12 billion in increased stock market value. But the reality is quite different -- four of the 10 destroyed shareholder value in the last year while the remaining six increased it. Who are the bargain CEOs, hogs, and value destroyers?

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Bargain CEOs, hogs and value destroyers originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 26 Oct 2006 12:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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