| | | My old boss used to tell me the story of a great Major League Baseball pitcher on a lousy team (long before free agency) that went to the owner and asked for a raise, recounting the great season and low ERA he had. Comparing with other players, he demonstrated that he was clearly underpaid.
The owner asked him where they finished in the standings. He responded, "Last place."
The owner's retort was, "Well...we could have done that without you." And the pitcher got no raise.
I think to some degree that Boniuk was very annoyed that Diwan was pushing for a raise when he hadn't achieved anything in a business sense. Diwan may be brilliant, but we could have lost this kind of money without his brilliance. A lesser man could have done the job just fine.
I suspect Boniuk has also been pushing for a restructuring of the ThereCour/NNVC enterprise and licensing agreement because at the last shareholder meeting he told me the company, in his opinion, cannot be sold as it is structured today.
I happen to agree with Boniuk. Diwan has a knack for getting paid at least twice for everything he does. Once for agreeing to do it, and again for doing it. Whether the shareholders ever get rewarded doesn't seem to be of any import to Diwan. The assertion that he has earned a raise deserves some scrutiny of the licensing agreement and the job Diwan has done managing this company to date. I think a lot of things need to change, but it appears they are not in Diwan's interest to change them. So instead Seymour gets fired and Boniuk leaves in frustration. And Diwan holds off on licensing VZV until a new guy with no history with the company comes in, raises some money with which to pay Diwan, and makes the licensing agreement.
I'd like to see Diwan be forced to change the licensing agreement in order to raise more money. The problem is, new money doesn't give a rat's ass about the existing shareholders. The new money may get a better deal, but I'd like to see the license agreement change before the refinancing so that existing shareholders get a better deal as well. |
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