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Archive for the 'The family business' Category

Losers take all at Cablevision …

Monday, May 24th, 2010

On Friday morning, we noted that the U.S. Senate had passed a bill requiring, among many other things, that candidates for corporate boards tender their resignation if they failed to get a majority of votes cast by shareholders. Little did we know at the time, but Cablevision Systems (CVC) was busily preparing to beam us [...]

The sweetheart deals continue unabashed at Pilgrim’s Pride…

Friday, May 14th, 2010

One might think — OK, perhaps hope — that after going through the grind of bankruptcy and emerging relatively unscathed, that the executives at a particular company might feel a wee bit chastened, perhaps even cautious about how things could look to others. But that’s not exactly the case at Pilgrim’s Pride (PPC), which is [...]

What happens at Las Vegas Sands …

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

Las Vegas has done a lot over the years to spiff up its image. But one thing it hasn’t quite been able to shake: The picture of the casino exec living large on the shareholder’s dime. Last week we looked at MGM Mirage (MGM) and its lavish pay for lackluster performance. This week, we turn [...]

Is Aaron’s dumping NASCAR?

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

Three years ago, we “awarded” Aaron’s (AAN) the highly prestigious footnote of the year for its disclosure that it had spent $260K to sponsor two race car drivers who happened to be related to a top Aaron’s executive. Last year, that number blossomed to $1.6 million and the executive — Bill Butler Jr. — is [...]

Protecting Ford’s royalty doesn’t come cheap…

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

There are several good articles today (such as this one and that one) about the executive compensation changes and the NEOs’ personal plane usage at Ford Motor Co. (F), so there’s no need to rehash either of those subjects. Instead, the topic that caught our attention in the preliminary proxy that Ford filed this morning [...]