FedEx (FDX) earnings matches analyst estimates originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 18 Sep 2008 09:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It wasn't the bagels burning up, it was the owner.

Before work I often stop by New York Bagel & Deli (NYBD) in Santa Monica for coffee, a bagel and the word on the street. Well this morning I got an earful from my friend Brian Gruntz, the owner, about the pay and severance package Bob Nardelli received for running The Home Depot (NYSE: HD)...before bailing out after failing to increase shareholder value in terms of share price. Hundreds of millions of dollars...for what?

Even though it is almost six months later, Brian still finds it outrageous that Nardelli and other CEOs are rewarded for contributing nothing to their company's bottom line, or shareholders', and often negative results due at least in part to their failure of leadership. Brian went on to rant about a story he read somewhere linking CEO performance and the construction of personal mansions, which start to pop up, like oracles, six months before their demise.

Continue reading Burning up at the bagel shop - Home Depot & Nardelli won't go away

Burning up at the bagel shop - Home Depot & Nardelli won't go away originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A survey from Barron's magazine describes Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs as the "ultimate CEO who matters." This survey identified the upper echelon of CEOs across the globe who have "top notch reputations" in the financial community and who likely would be missed by investors if they unexpectedly left their jobs.

To qualify, CEOs need to have been on the job for at least three years, but Barron's tended to prefer those who had at least five years of experience because it takes time to influence a large company and develop a reputation in the investment world. This survey is not entirely scientific considering Barron's drew on the subjective opinions of its own staff and many prominent investors.

Many of the CEOs who made the list have either founded their companies or have been with them for a decade or longer. Founders include Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. (NYSE:NWS), Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK), and Fred Smith of FedEx Corp. (NYSE:FDX). It is noted in the article that, "a founder often has intimate business knowledge, commands strong employee loyalty and can resist periodic entreaties from Wall Street for quick fixes to tough problems."

A common theme for all CEOs is that they have all delivered for the shareholders. Nearly all of the companies have stocks that have bested the Standard & Poor's 500 index during the CEOs tenure. One CEO in particular, Steve Jobs (co-founder of Apple Inc.), is so valuable to his company that the report notes that "Jobs' departure probably would result in a greater loss of stock-market value than the loss of any other CEO in the world. Jobs might be worth 20 or so points to Apple shares, roughly $16 billion." No wonder Apple is so eager to minimize its CEOs association with the company's option-backdating woes.

Barron's ultimate CEOs -- Apple's Jobs tops the list originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 26 Mar 2007 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.