Merrill CEO drops $10M bonus bid

Source: CNN

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Merrill Lynch's chief executive John Thain has dropped his request for a $10 million annual bonus after being blasted by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Thain requested at a board meeting on Monday that Merrill's compensation committee not award him a bonus for 2008, and the board of directors accepted that request, Merrill Lynch said.

Thain had reportedly previously asked for a bonus of up to $10 million, which prompted Cuomo to send a strongly worded letter to Merrill's board of directors in which he called Thain's request for a bonus "nothing less than shocking."

Cuomo pointed out that the brokerage reported losses for every quarter this year, and has lost more than $11 billion in 2008. He added that Bank of America's (BAC, Fortune 500) takeover of Merrill, which was formally approved by shareholders Friday, "seems to have been the only thing that saved Merrill from collapse."

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/08/news/economy/Cuomo_Thain/?postversion=2008120819

Let these weasels defend themselves in the light of day like everyone else.

Why would he even ask for something like that?!

I've got to believe the sound that IMMEDIATELY followed the news of the government bailouts was the sound of champagne corks popping.

What he might want to be more concerned about is the upcoming scrutiny he'll be under when the new sherriff(s) comes to town....

I suppose I'd risk it. If I had an eight or nine digit bank account, I'd have to question my desire to add a measly ten million more.

and no one will know or put up a stink until after the annual report is out and the bucks are safely in my pocket.

Imagine his surprise when the internets exploded with the story and Cuomo became aware of the ripoff.

I always thought bonuses were what you get when your company performs well during the previous year and you were an integral part of that success.

Cripe, these a-holes can drive their companies off the cliff, throw hundreds, if not thousands of employees into the unemployment line, and they still think they're entitled to multi-million dollar bonuses on top of their obscene salaries.

This is the kind of stuff that triggers class warfare.

Hopefully the new administration will be able to address that. Good company performance should get a reward, bad should not and the CEO's job should be at risk. It is time for the Corporate boards to stand up and actually do something instead of just going to meetings and accepting money for their attendance.

and that Merrill's problems are the result of others' ineptitude.

Honestly, when I hear shit like this, I wish there was a prison sentence for pure greed and assholeness.
But I know prisons are already crowded.
What a total ass.

kind of white trash who would think such request plausible.

If the small stockholders had more of a say, it probably wouldn't happen.

What I can't understand is, why don't people who have pensions in the big funds get organized and object to this kind of thing more? People should be directing what their money is invested in and how those companies are run, I think. For instance the big state employees' funds... those state employees should be a power that the corporations they're invested in should have to answer to.

I don't have a pension fund, but it just seems logical to me - that those savings should count for some clout to change things for the better.