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Merrill Lynch CEO Wants $10M Bonus For Not Failing

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Bad Decisions, Business, Money

Why?

Because he set up a deal for Bank of America to buy Merrill Lynch.

That’s right. The firm was in dire straits and needed somebody to save them. That’s why this guy thinks he’s entitled to this cash.

From CNBC:

Merrill Lynch Chief Executive John Thain has suggested to directors that he get a 2008 bonus of as much as $10 million, but the battered company’s compensation committee is resisting his request, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the situation.

The compensation committee has not reached a decision, but is leaning toward denying Thain and other senior executives bonuses for this year, the people told the paper.

Thain has said he deserves a bonus because he helped avert what could have been a much larger crisis at the firm, people familiar with his thinking told the WSJ. Members of Merrill’s compensation committee agree with Thain that the takeover is in shareholders’ best interest, but believe it would be foolish to ignore strong public sentiment against large compensation packages, the paper said, citing people familiar with their thinking.

No doubt this media leak is designed to shame Thain into backing away from his myopic demands, but how about he gets a pink slip instead? I’m not joking. If somebody is this out of touch with the current economic situation and can’t appreciate how this demand looks he should be shown the door.

The good news? This has nothing to do with the government’s TARP program.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2008 and is filed under Bad Decisions, Business, Money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Merrill Lynch CEO Wants $10M Bonus For Not Failing”

Aaron Says:
December 8th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Completely agree on the pink slip here. I’m greatful when my company gives me a raise, but I don’t go demanding one from my boss because we got bought by IBM.
ZP Says:
December 8th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Here a song about the bailout for the holidays (no French hens, though):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55xJnIqq9ZI

This person gets his well-earned reward on day seven.

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