Merrill Lynch boss to get $11m payoff after nine months' work

[inanna]

Source: UK Guardian

Merrill Lynch's newly recruited chief executive, John Thain, stands to share a $200m (£111.4m) payout with two senior lieutenants for less than a year's work which culminated this week in the bank surrendering its 94-year-old independence.

The Wall Street bank known as the "thundering herd" agreed to a $50bn takeover by Bank of America on Monday after a hasty 48 hours of negotiation. The talks were prompted by fears over banking stability arising from the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Thain, who was previously the head of the New York Stock Exchange, joined Merrill in December with a mandate to steer the bank out of financial trouble. When he arrived, he was given a $15m signing on bonus. If he leaves in Bank of America's takeover, he stands to get a further $11m in accelerated stock payouts.

Two former Goldman Sachs executives hired by Thain are likely to do even better. Merrill's head of global trading, Thomas Montag, who joined in August, has already received a $39m bonus. Together with stock options accelerated by a buyout, he could end the year with $76m. The bank's head of strategy, Peter Kraus, was given a $95m package including bonuses and stock awards to replace his generous compensation at Goldman when he joined in May, according to figures obtained by Bloomberg News.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/18/merrilllynch.executivesalaries

[opihimoimoi]

1. OutRageous and despicable...WTF...they said no fuckin parachutes...and now...this shit?

25 MILLIOn for 8 months work?

and he fucked it up worse than when he started? This is Bizzarre

[slewfoot]

3. Rob a bank of 5k; get 10 years in the state pen....

Rob shareholders and depositors of billions....a pat on the back.

[Union Thug]

22. Can you say, "Heckuva job, Johnny?"

These guys should be doing life in the same cells as murders and rapists. If I ran the zoo, things would be different because, although I'm against the death penalty in principle, I figure since we've already got it in place, we may as well use it on those that harm our society the most - the criminals on wall street and our crooked corporate elite.

[SOS]

38. Article says $200 million

nt

[Turbineguy]

2. Overpaid Underachievers

are in short supply, so we are told to believe.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. The stock price crashed - shouldn't stock options be worthless by now?

Options are only worth something when the price goes up.

[rfranklin]

20. These are guaranteed payouts put into the contract....

tp protect them in just such an instance as this.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. "Thain, 53, is a leading fundraiser for the Republican presidential candidate John McCain"

So, no surprise there. :eyes:

[Alcibiades]

14. So much for decrying greed and excess

and corruption--should be familiar to McCain. Anyone remember Keating?

If he's elected, he'll put more of these folks in charge of us economic policy.

[saigon68]

36. some one needs to do a Rev Wright on this Mother Fucker

Put the asshole on the tube

With a pig with lipstick

[Bette Noir]

6. My head is exploding.

That's a lot of money for a successful businessman. For presiding over a monumental failure...

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. Unsuccessful bosses get paid *more* than successful ones

in a 5 year study in the UK:

Patterson said: "Success is rewarded, failure is compensated." He tracked the pay and performance of 59 companies in the FTSE100 at the start and finish of the five-year period. The survey divided the companies into "winners", which had achieved a total shareholder return of at least 10 per cent a year, and "losers", which had not.

The average salary for FTSE bosses at the winners was £3.8m, against £4.5m at underperforming companies. Likewise, the average bonus was £3.1m for "winners" but £4m for underperformers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/08/24/cnpay124.xml

[zbdent]

7. great work if you can get it ...

Hey, can I get some corporate welfare?

[Solly Mack]

8. I'm sitting here shaking my head

I'd scream....but what would be the point?

[RedLetterRev]

32. There's more room on the outside than the inside

or so my partner tells me. May as well let it out. It cleanses the soul and clears the head and we're gonna need all the clear heads we can get -- and quickly.

[tanyev]

9. Isn't that special.

[Odin2005]

10. WTF!?!

Words fail me. :grr:

[bronxiteforever]

11. Thain is a rethug poster boy for elitism-This should be an Obama Ad

John Thain

Political donations

John Thain donated $332,950 to politically affilated groups/individuals: $208,000 to Republicans, $16,000 to Democrats, and $108,750 to special interest groups.
http://www.newsmeat.com/ceo_political_donations/John_Thain.php

k & r

[HughBeaumont]

12. Ain't that America?

All we do is coddle and please one group of people - the ultra wealthy.

The ultra-wealthy can do any kind of job they want. Good performance, bad performance, doesn't matter. They'll still exit with a lottery in their pocket, move on to the next plundering, leave with a lottery in their pocket.

Until this one-sided game of greed stops, NOTHING is EVER going to change. EVER.

[SOS]

39. An America whose system more resembles Mussolini's Italy

"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism—ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power."
-FDR 1938

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power."
- Benito Mussolini

[HughBeaumont]

41. And FDR would know better than anyone . . .

. . . lest we forget that a group of traitorous industrialist scumfucks tried to overthrow him in 1934 . . . but Smedley Butler could NOT be bought.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_plot

[progressoid]

13. "Free Markets!!!"

Jezuz. :banghead:

[The Backlash Cometh]

15. Why? It's time to put an end too this scam.

This gives us a green light to turn this into class warfare.

[whistle]

16. These are NOT earned salaries or wages that these executives are

...getting. They are a combination of bribes and hush money for looting the resourses of specific target corporations by hostile takeover groups or insiders taking the compaies down for their own enrichment. This should be stopped by the SEC, but Bush's cronies are running that oversight group as well and seem to favor these types of schemes for making money.

Very bad for the country and McCain wants to continue this sort of thing!

[Amonester]

40. Mc$ame has no idea about any of this, except...

he'll always say 'yes' to anyone who will give him tons of $$$,$$$ regardless of where those $$$,$$$ came from.

[PA Democrat]

17. Personal responsibility is only for the unwashed masses.

[OneBlueSky]

18. as Sinatra might say . . .

"Nice work if you can get it" . . .

[classysassy]

33. "and you can get it if you try"

join the republican gang(outlaws),crooks and thugs.

[paparush]

19. Yeah, but with inflation rising, that $11M is really worth no more than $9.5M

:sarcasm:

[ramapo]

23. Sick, sick, sick

I hate it when I see that somebody my own age is a leading fundraiser for McCain. It makes me wonder WTF happened with my generation.

[xyouth]

24. As a new Socialist Country we should tax the crap out of their money......

and invest it in Schools or a national health care system.
Oh, This is the kind of socialism where you don't call it socialism, you just tax the middle class to expand the wealth of the rich.
WE NEED A CHANGE!

If we don't get it, may I suggest a revolution?:banghead: :patriot:

[L0oniX]

25. Where does John Thain live? What's his address? What does he look like?

While we bail out these bastards they get that kind of money? I'd call that robbery. Speaking of that ...shouldn't robbers know where these guys live? I mean if you are going to break in an rob someone wouldn't you like to know where the rich bastards live? No one deserves that kind of money, NO ONE !

[dhpgetsit]

26. Stand up, America!

Remember when Merrill Lynch was "Bullish on America"?
I say BULLSHIT

Vote for Democrats!

(And make sure they remember why they were elected when they take office.)

[DeeDeeNY]

27. This is absolutely nuts

[xyouth]

28. I think this is the real reason that the Founding fathers gave us the.....

2nd Amendment to the Constitution.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

29. You just can't make this stuff up

JUST

FV#$ING

WOW

[lonestarnot]

30. Disgusting fucker!

[WriteDown]

31. I am torn on this....

I have a severance payment built into my contract. Its nowhere near 9 million, but it was negotiated when I took the job and was one of the reasons that I ended up where I did. Not sure I would want anyone to just take it away, but if I performed so badly, there should be some sort of consequence.

[JerseygirlCT]

34. I don't think the problem is severance, per se. I think these packages

are just another symptom of the out of control contracts these top execs get, period.

They are awarded these deals by their friends, who stock the boards of all the companies they might run. Likewise, they sit on boards run by their friends. It's all nice and cozy, you scratch my back, I scratch yours.

Transparency is what seems to be missing. And a real say from stockholders. Every million going into those exec's pockets is coming from the stockholders', after all. They're the ones who ought to determine whether it's worth it.

Heck, loyalty being what it isn't anymore, I think a severance package is just plain smart!

[Chemical Bill]

35. That's like 5K to you and me, ya gotta feel for him.

:sarcasm:

[Vinca]

37. I could kill a large corporation as fast as anyone - send me a pile of cash. nt

[struggle4progress]

44. No kidding: I'd have demolished Merrill Lynch for $6 million

[Quantess]

42. Appalling!

[riverdeep]

43. The slogan of the ultra-wealthy: Heads I win, tails you lose.

They've set up the system so they literally can't lose. They make the laws, they have Congress, they have their friends in high places, they are untouchable and unaccountable. Meanwhile, the peasants outside the gate are chided on the rigors of personal responsibility and not getting something for nothing.

FREE MARKET MY ASS!!!