Merrill Lynch CEO wants $10 Million bonus

[LuvBigRip]

(Reuters) – Merrill Lynch & Co 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.

Merrill could not be immediately reached for comment.

Shareholders on Friday approved Bank of America Corp's takeover of Merrill, a deal fraught with risk but one that would create a banking giant with a leading position in almost every major area of the financial system.

Merrill was arguably saved from extinction when it agreed to merge on September 15, an hour before Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc filed for bankruptcy. The fear was that Merrill could be next if shareholders and trading partners fled, as many did at Lehman and the former Bear Stearns Cos.

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.

Committee members are also weighing the fact that other Wall Street firms, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, which did better than Merrill this year, are not giving out bonuses to top executives, the paper said.

Thain, who became Merrill's chief executive after losses in mortgage-related investments led to the October 2007 ouster of Stanley O'Neal, has also run NYSE Euronext, after a long career at Goldman.

After the Bank of America-Merrill deal is completed, he will run the merged company's global banking, securities and wealth management businesses. Thain will not be joining Bank of America's board.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081208/bs_nm/us_merrill_bonus

[atprm]

...and he deserves this bonus because????

what a greedy jackass.

[LuvBigRip]

...and he deserves this bonus because????

what a greedy jackass.

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

I know, that was my thought too. :getyou :slap

[ahippiechic]

Merrill Lynch CEO cam BMA.

[Shann]

that is messed up, what a greedy (insert your word here) ! :mad: If I had money w/ them I would be withdrawing it so fast it wouldn't be funny.

[jeanea33]

that is messed up, what a greedy (insert your word here) ! :mad: If I had money w/ them I would be withdrawing it so fast it wouldn't be funny.




If your 401k's are with them. It isnt as simple as remove it. They are linked in with companies. Most employees dont have choices who they get to pick to manage them. The only choice we get is where we want our money invested stocks/bonds. I dont think any company that isnt making profits should give any type of bonuses.

[whatever]

I can't believe this dumbace is stupid enough to ask for a 10 million dollar bonus when the economy is in the crapper in the first place.

[LuvBigRip]

A former top executive at Merrill Lynch who received a $25 million golden parachute after just three months of work has purchased a $37 million Park Avenue palace.

Peter Kraus, 55, paid the staggering sum for a five-bedroom co-op on New York's posh Park Avenue after getting a $25 million buyout from Merrill Lynch when the company was sold to Bank of America in September, the New York Post reported.

Photo's of the Palacial Apartment here (http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,6133,00.html)

The 15-room apartment — featuring 11-foot-high ceilings, four fireplaces, three maid's rooms, a mahogany-paneled library and a gym upstairs — sold for twice what the previous owners, Democratic fundraisers Carl Spielvogel and Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, paid for it nearly two years ago, the Post reported.

Kraus is seen as a poster boy for the excess and irresponsibility on the part of America's financial institutions that helped drive them into the ground.

Although he did not officially start work until September, he hit it big after just a couple of days in office, when Merrill Lynch's CEO sold the company to Bank of America for $50 billion during the market meltdown.

And just in case his massive new pad isn't spacious enough, the building also features a squash court and wine cellar downstairs, according to real-estate broker Brown Harris Stevens.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,473967,00.html

[dv8grl]

I pray horrible things happen to him :pray

[DAVESBABYDOLL]

I checked out the picture..pretty fugly for that kind of cash. I would have bought a sprawling country mansion in England lol or a private beach someplace.

[whatever]

again this is where I HOPE karma steps in at some point at bites him in the ace.
Ceo's poorly managed these companies and yet are wanting big money for themselves while others loose their homes?

[wubbywa]

Doesnt impress me a bit. It looks cold and lonely in my opinion and that is not home.

[nightrider127]

Those greedy CEOs need a good kick where thr good Lord split them.

[LuvBigRip]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A New York state judge on Wednesday ordered Bank of America Corp. to disclose information about bonuses given to employees at Merrill Lynch & Co. just before the bank bought the brokerage company.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Bank of America have been sparring over the release of the information for weeks. Cuomo is investigating whether Bank of America and Merrill failed to provide proper disclosures to shareholders about the bonuses.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Bernard Fried ruled that the compensation figures didn't constitute a trade secret, as BofA had claimed.

Bank of America and the attorney general's office did not immediately comment on the ruling.

The judge's ruling reverses a temporary order keeping individual bonus information confidential. That order was put into place last month after Merrill's former CEO John Thain testified about the bonuses.

Bank of America bought New York-based Merrill Jan. 1.

Cuomo's office is trying to determine if Merrill and Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America failed to provide adequate disclosures to shareholders about the payouts, made in December, and the more than $15 billion in losses Merrill incurred in that quarter.

Merrill moved up its bonus payments to December from January to complete them before the sale to BofA.

Bank of America, which finds itself in Cuomo's cross-hairs, has repeatedly said Merrill was an independent company last year and it thus had no power to determine the size of payouts to Merrill employees.

During his first deposition, Thain refused to provide information about individual bonuses, claiming he was worried about a potential lawsuit from Bank of America. He was forced to return for a second round of questioning, though it is unclear if he gave details about the bonuses then.

Thain resigned as head of global wealth management at the combined company in January just as news of the bonuses broke.

BofA's CEO Ken Lewis testified last month as well, but did not reveal information about individual bonuses. During that testimony, Cuomo's office subpoenaed Lewis a second time in hopes of eventually getting the information.

In defending his position about the need to publicly release individual bonus information, Cuomo points out that Lewis said during his testimony that there has never been a policy at Bank of America that requires bonus information to remain confidential.

Cuomo and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., sent a letter to Bank of America in early March demanding the information be made public because the bank has received $45 billion as part of the government's bank investment program. As a recipient of the funds, Bank of America must provide better transparency and disclosure to taxpayers about where their money is being spent, Cuomo and Frank asserted in the letter.

The initial reports of the bonuses came just days after Bank of America received an additional $20 billion from the government that the bank said it needed to help offset the losses it was absorbing from the Merrill acquisition. The additional support was provided as Lewis showed trepidation about completing the deal to acquire Merrill.

Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and other lawmakers have been insistent on knowing how financial institutions are spending taxpayers funds. Politicians have been indignant in recent days over bonuses paid to American International Group Inc. employees. The government bailed out the insurance giant last September and now owns about an 80 percent stake in the firm.

The government helped orchestrate the acquisition of Merrill by Bank of America over the same weekend in September that another investment bank, Lehman Brothers, went under and AIG received its initial government support.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/merrill_bonuses