Jurgis, I don't think you are ranting at all. Nor do I believe those who take umbrage over this diamond-studded golden parachute for Jill are ranting either...the question of whether the BOD demonstrated genuine stewardship of company assets is a very valid one.
Of course, everyone wanted Jill's head, but it was emotional response. The only big error during her career was the TLC buyout. And that's in the hindsight.
Actually Jill's first bona fide disaster was the fiasco with Toys R Us just as the TLC deal was near closure which ushered in the first collapse of stock price to the 20's. And yes, I bought MAT believing the TLC deal to be a good one, getting MAT a quick beachhead against Hasbro's CD game efforts. Unfortunately MAT did not do anything near true due diligence, and when it became apparent TLC had been propped up, sort of the business equivalent of 'Weekend at Bernie's', and TLC results stunk out MAT's results, her excuse that 'nobody told me' came across as extremely incompetent.
Finally, no, I do not think shareholder suits serve a useful purpose except in cases of outright fraud and book-cooking. It is probably impossible to prove that the BOD failed to act in the best interest of the shareholders in this severance package. The only thing to do now is break out the elephant-poop shovels, clean up Jill's mess, clean up the BOD's mess and start anew. And they had better hurry up. Unfortunately I think the next disaster will be the BOD dropping the company's collective drawers to its ankles yet again by selling TLC for peanuts to Havas Interactive or some other suitor seeking a Computer Associates-style bargain basement buy. |
