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Tag: Bill Gates
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Judge Says Par Ridder Must Step Down
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At Brinker, directors eat free
Brinker International, the Dallas restaurant company with $4.3 billion in annual revenue, pays members of its board of directors well, more than $200,000 a year in cash and stock, according to the company’s proxy statement.
And it gives them a complimentary dining card for use in company restaurants, which currently number about 1,800 in 49 states, Washington, D.C., and two dozen foreign countries. Brinker’s outlets include Chili’s, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, On the Border and Maggiano’s Little Italy.
The dining card is a great perk for motivating directors to learn first hand about the company’s business and its products. Wonder how many of Countrywide Financial’s directors and their families hold some of the exotic mortgages that are now causing chaos in the credit markets? Or, how many Mattel directors and their families have toys with lead paint in their homes?
A few of Brinker’s directors did not make use of their dining card, as first reported by footnoted.org. Among them was Robert Gates, who left the board late last year when he became Secretary of Defense.
George Mrkonic, the retired president of Borders Group, and John Mims, co-founder of Cypress Ridge Partners, also did not use their cards.
The remaining outside directors did make use of their cards, some of them, apparently, liberally. In its proxy, the company listed only the tax gross up amount paid to each director, related to use of the dining card. That amount would be much less than the value of the meals received.
Ron Kirk, former mayor of Dallas and a partner in the law firm of Vinson & Elkins, received a gross up of $1,022. Rosendo Parra, a retired Dell executive, received $528. Erle Nye, chairman emeritus of TXU, the giant utility company being acquired by private equity firms, received $415. And James Oesterreicher, the retired chairman of J.C. Penney, received $250.
Keep in mind that the average meal (food and drinks) at Chili’s, Romano’s and On the Border generates less than $15.50 in revenue, according to Brinker’s 10-K. The average meal revenue at Maggianos is $25.80.
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Bush Nominates Former Judge As Ag
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Ellison in court over America’s Cup
The battle for the America’s Cup is being fought not on the high seas but in New York State Supreme…
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, whose team lost the race this year, has accused winner Ernesto Bertarelli of manipulating the rules governing the next cup.
The court case, filed by the Golden Gate Yacht Club, charges that Bertarelli’s team has accepted a challenge from a team with no standing, and has refused to disclose design specifications for boats sailing in the race. Bertarelli’s group, Societe Nautique de Geneve, has turned the competition into a “Defender’s Cup,” the suit charges.
Justice Herman Kahn has scheduled a hearing for Oct. 22.
Ellison is known not only for his love of sailing, but for his fierce competitiveness. He owns the world’s second-largest private yacht, the 454-foot Rising Sun, which was designed to be longer than Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen’s yacht, Octopus.
However, as Robert Frank has noted in the Wall Street Journal Wealth Report, Ellison is building a new boat. The Rising Sun, it turns out, is too big to park at most of the world’s marinas.
On the web
New York Supreme Court sets October hearing date on America’s Cup lawsuit – International Herald Tribune
Billionaire Boat Battle – Forbes
Ellison’s New Yacht – Wall Street Journal -
A Change of Course for Indymac
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Murdoch Gets Taste of His Own Medicine
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Auditor doubts NovaStar’s health
It’s one thing when stock market analysts knock your company’s prospects. Even worse when your auditor does the same.
Subprime lender NovaStar Financial cancelled plans to raise $101 million Tuesday saying its auditor, Deloitte & Touche LLP , wanted to include a statement in the company’s financial disclosures about the “uncertainty of NovaStar’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
Kansas City-based NovaStar also said it was cutting another 275 jobs, dropping the employee count to 600, down from more than 2,000 at the end of 2006.
“We are pulling back to focus on NovaStar’s core strengths and preserve liquidity,” NovaStar CEO Scott Hartman said in a statement.
Scott Valentin, an analyst at Friedman, Billings Ramsey & Co., wrote that “an eventual liquidation of the company is highly probable.”
On the web -
Meyerson leaves Accredited
Accredited Home Lenders, the troubled mortgage company with two former S&L regulators on its board, lost a key director this week.
Click here for help putting maps on your site.Military Contractor Accused of Bribes
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Zuckerberg Fights Lawsuit Over Facebook Idea
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At the Robin Hood Foundation the rich take from the rich
Gupta picks home-grown board members
While controversial tech entrepreneur Vinod Gupta widely cultivates political alliances around the country, he stays close to home when he picks board members for his Omaha-based company, infoUSA.
Click here for help putting maps on your site.Rubbing Elbows at the Yellowstone Club
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Money Men at the Media Summit
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Whole Foods, but not the whole story
So, now we know how at least one corporate CEO got his kicks. For years, he posted on financial bulletin boards, under an alias, sometimes criticizing the competition.
“I posted on Yahoo! under a pseudonym because I had fun doing it,” Whole Foods CEO John Mackey acknowledged on his company’s Web site last night. “I never intended any of those postings to be identified with me.”
Mackey used the pseudonym “Rahodeb,” a variation on his wife’s name, Deborah, from 1999 until last summer The New York Times reported.
The FTC, which is trying to block Whole Foods’ acquisition of another organic grocer, Wild Oats, disclosed the pseudonym in a footnote in a court document. Using his alias, Mackey had posted about Wild Oats.
Burkle Still Chasing a Newspaper Dream
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Environmentalists and Military Leaders Unlikely Bedfellows
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Libby and Rich: pardon-me boys
Democrats and Republicans did their best this week to draw distinctions between Bill Clinton’s pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich and George Bush’s commutation of Lewis Libby’s prison sentence.
“I think there are guidelines for what happens when somebody is convicted,” Clinton said in a radio interview Tuesday. “You’ve got to understand, this is consistent with their philosophy; they believe that they should be able to do what they want to do, and that the law is a minor obstacle.”
The Associated Press reports that White House deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel responded, “When you think about the previous administration and the 11th-hour, fire-sale pardons … it’s really startling that they have the gall to criticize what we believe is a very considered, a very deliberate approach to a very unique case.”
Guess who used to represent Rich. That’s right, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who testified in 2001 before a congressional committee that he had performed about $2 million worth of legal work for Rich.
Joint Chiefs – From war room to board room
Don’t cry for Gen. Peter Pace. Or, Adm. Ed Giambastiani.
When they soon leave as chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, they will likely have ample opportunity to make big money in the private sector.
Consider Richard Myers, who preceded Pace as chairman. The retired Air Force general received a total of nearly $800,000 in cash, stock and other compensation last year as a director of four publicly traded companies, according to SEC filings. He is also a professor of military history at Kansas State.
Myers is a director of Aon, Deere & Co., United Technologies and Northrop Grumman.
Gen. Joseph Ralston, a former vice chair of the Joint Chiefs who retired in 2003, received a total of more than $640,000 in cash, stock and other compensation last year as a director of URS, Lockheed Martin and Timken, according to SEC filings.
He is also a director of privately held Cohen Group, headed by former U.S. Sen. and Secretary of Defense William Cohen. Cohen Group is a consulting and lobbying firm.
In addition, both Myers and Ralston are eligible for military retirement pay. Retired military leaders are in demand as directors of major corporations including Anheuser-Busch, Union Pacific, ConocoPhillips and Phelps Dodge.
Military pay doesn’t match the private sector. But it is increasing. In April, the base salaries of the Joint Chiefs chairman and vice chairman went from about $161,000 a year to about $186,000. That’s more than the $183,500 salary of Vice President Dick Cheney.
Last month, defense secretary Robert Gates said he would not re-nominate Pace for another term as chairman because his confirmation process would be too contentious. Pace, a Marine general who was vice chair for four years before becoming chair in 2005, has not indicated his future plans. Giambastiani said he is retiring.
On the web
Pace to Retire as Joint Chiefs Chairman – New York Times
Casualty of War – Newsweek