blogs.wsj.com — Microsoft?s top brass took a pay haircut pay last year because of the weak economy, but one executive got a nice perk as part of his hiring by Microsoft. That executive received a whopping $4.1 million in relocation expenses for the fiscal year when Microsoft agreed to purchase his former home in Silicon Valley.
Sep 30, 2009 View in Crawl 4
seditioSep 30, 2009
At the executive level there are plenty of people worth $4.1M, considering MS is a multi-billion dollar company. People who have a hard time grasping executive pay are people who don't have a solid grasp on what an executive does for a company.
rmxzSep 30, 2009
A stupid exec can easily do that much *harm* to a company.I think they're paid to avoid the big mistakes.
bradleylandSep 30, 2009
Point taken, it may not be "simple", but it's possible. Unless demand for Linux-based devices increases, it won't get any simpler though.FWIW, Dell offers laptops with Ubuntu pre-installed.
miffelplixSep 30, 2009
Microsoft has entered middle-age. It is no longer a cutting edge company, and the surest sign of this is how it treats its employees.
godwarrior33702Sep 30, 2009
I won't get into the whole 'are Execs worth their huge paychecks?' thing BUT...The 'Fair-Market Value' of this home was hugely inflated. In other words there was nothing 'fair' about it. The company took a loss...likely a 7 figure loss, when Microsoft bought the house and sold it at it's TRUE market value (what someone was willing to pay vs. what this guy could get appraisers to say it was worth). Hell, Microsoft even paid to cover the taxes the guy made on his windfall.This transaction goes beyond a basic relocation package. The 7 figures lost on the deal could have gone to benefit the company's shareholders or to invest in benefits/pay for low level employees.Instead that money went to one Executive so he didn't have to take a loss on his Mega-Mansion.
seditioSep 30, 2009
Sardic thanks for the input but we are not discussing incompetent exec's, we are discussing successful companies with competent exec's. You listed four bad companies, what about the other 996 companies that are still around and providing jobs on that fortune 1000 list? Your logic boggles the mind.