Normally it is okay for CEO’s to make big money, but not when the company is having a bit of a rough time. Ed Whitacre, the tyrant CEO of SBC Communications (which is just digesting its $41 billion cake called AT&T Wireless) took in a whopping $19.5 million in compensation.
Now compare this with the stock: It was one of the five worst performing stocks amongst its peers on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, down 4 percent for 2003. DJIA was up 25% last year. Revenues have been down for 13 straight quarters, and so have the earnings. Crucially in the 13-odd quarters the company’s fortunes have gone south, Whitacre made about $50 million.
San Francisco Chronicle reports that: “Whitacre received a base salary of $2.1 million, a bonus of $5.7 million, $2.4 million from the company’s long-term incentive program, $7.2 million in restricted stock awards and $2.1 million in additional compensation.” That is a total of $19.5 million (not including stock options), versus mere $8.6 million he earned in 2002. He made $21 million in 2001. Wow! This qualifies him for the “Broadbandits” club. In comparison, BellSouth CEO Duane Ackerman earned $2.3 million in 2002 and Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Verizon Communications took home $9.5 million in 2002. Their 2003 incomes are yet to be revealed.
Whitacre’s income must be grating to about 30,000 employees or 15 percent of the total work force who were laid off during the time he has been stuffing himself with cash. He blamed increased competition and a soft economy. That works out to about $1650 or so per employee shown the door.
9 comments so far
4:02 PM PT
not to mention them wanting to take away or shift much of the cost of our healthcare to employees. We have been working mandatory overtime for years and are burned out, then get written up when we are sick. When will it end
4:02 PM PT
YOUR EMPLOYEES MAKE YOU ALL OF THAT MONEY, HE DOESN’T HAVE TO WORK IN 5 DEGREE WEATHER? BUT THE HARD WORKING REPAIR TECHS DO, AND NOW YOU WANT TO SHIFT HEALTHCARE ON THEM, WE HAVE FAMILYS TO WE NEED TO TAKE CARE OF.
WHAT KIND OF HEALTH PLAN DOES HE HAVE?!!
4:02 PM PT
SBC is the worst telco in America. I can’t wait to piss on the trash heap that remains after a bankrupt SBC is raped and pillaged by creditors and competitors.
assholes.
4:02 PM PT
With the multi-millions he has made over the past few years, do you really think he needs health care benefits???
4:02 PM PT
I used to work for SBC. My mother’s worked there for years. HOW DARE YOU!
I’ll support SBC in the looming strike (and it will happen if you don’t respect the many SBC workers’ demand of appropriate health care) if Mr. Whitacre gives back all but his base salary. Perhaps that will solve the problem of paying for health care benefits and actually give Mr. Whitacre an incentive to do his job adequately if not well.
4:02 PM PT
Shame on you, Ed!
4:02 PM PT
Please help me and my union in it’s quest against greedy CEO’s and major corporations and also help to fight the growing cost of health care aka insurance cost which are aalso run by greedy CEO’s Thank you all for your show of support and lets take this fight to the streets. I am a installer/repairman in the Columbus, Ohio area and have been with the company about 4.5 years. I can’t afford a paycut which is basically what would happen if we accept what the company is offering us right now. Can I afford to go on strike? no I can’t and will lose everything I own when/if we do go on strike but I can’t stand by and keep letting the rich get richer with the sweat, blood and sometimes tears of us people out here on the frontlines. Please help us take this fight to the streets.
4:02 PM PT
my neck and back hurts like hell
While surfing the web I came across this website called The Future Faster, which pretends to be a grass root’s…
10:17 PM PT
Ed Whitacre,
Basically ruined SBC with his gluttonous desire to become the CEO of AT&T. All he wanted to do was buy ATT and merged the two companies together and be the CEO. Unfortunately, he let the ATT management team take over the Enterprise division and Rid themselves of all the SBC people who made the company successful. It’s an awful tragedy what ED Whitacre did to the people who worked at SBC, all because he had only one goal in mind, To be CEO of ATT. Pathetic, and typical big-headed persona of a supposed leader in charge with only one goal in mind. It’s tragic to see people like this in charge of large corporations and they don’t care about the real people who make the “Success” in the company. Today, I am 3 years out of ATT and I am happily picking off a lot of their customers and taking that revenue away from ATT. Everytime I win away a customer from ATT, it’s a nice feeling inside knowing that ATT becomes a tad smaller every day. Actually, it’s quite easy to take a customer away for ATT. Bye ED, go retire and sit in your mansion with all your millions and you can watch the stock price of your baby slowly fade into the sunset….
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