Verizon Shareholders Gain Exec Pay Vote

Source: All Headline News

Verizon Shareholders Gain Exec Pay Vote

May 19, 2007 2:16 p.m. EST

Ed Sutherland - AHN News Writer

Pittsburgh, PA (AHN) - Verizon Communications stockholders Friday approved a proposal giving them a voice in executive compensation packages. The vote highlights investor frustration.

Verizon, worth $124 billion, last year paid its CEO Ivan Seidenberg a $20 million compensation package. The AFL-CIO objected to the compensation because Verizon share prices fell between 2002 and 2006.

Verizon, the second-largest phone company, becomes the largest corporation to pass such a proposal by its stockholders. The 100,000-member Association of Bell Retirees sponsored the proposal.

Reacting to the measure's passage, Verizon said in a Friday statement, it would "further consider its policies in light of the high level of shareholder interest."

Read more: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7007393891

Good news! Thanks for posting.

Now allwe have to do is stop the assinine practice fo giving huge bonuses to those who administer the Veteran's Admin...while they let actual Vets rot in the hospitals and deny medical attention to others.

You will see it in the streets and feel it in your bones.

Seidenberg's compensation is about average for someone in his position, but CEOs of major companies are all grossly overpaid.

It's really too soon to tell if Seidenberg will be the hero or the goat. He is staking the future of the company on expansion of fiber-optic service and letting the traditional telephone business drift lower and lower. If the plan succeeds, it could supercharge the local phone business by adding video, which would almost double customer revenue. If fiber can't be deployed fast enough, the local phone business could start going into the red and dragging everything else down with it. They're busy selling off territories like Hawaii and parts of New England to raise cash to plug into fiber.

Of course, most of this is due to Seidenberg's predecessors and geography. New York City is probably the most competitive telco market in the country, and nothing short of a revolution is going to change that. But the revolution might be coming.