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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carragher who wrote (50364)	7/12/2002 1:05:15 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 64865

Corporate crooks belong behind bars, Sun chief says By Therese Poletti Mercury News Sun Microsystems Chief Executive Scott McNealy says the government should send corporate crooks to jail -- ``and not one of these country clubs with barbed wire on them.'' ``I think that white-collar crime is way more despicable than someone who steals a loaf of bread because they're hungry,'' said McNealy in an interview Thursday with Mercury News reporters and editors. ``I'm from Detroit. Throw them in the drunk tank in downtown Detroit and have them make a few new friends.'' But McNealy, who has led the Santa Clara computer server giant for the past 18 years, bristles at government efforts to rein in CEO pay or force executives to attest to the accuracy of their company's financial reports -- efforts that have gained strong political support following the endless stream of corporate accounting scandals in the past year, from Enron to WorldCom. McNealy said he just received a letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission asking him to sign a notarized statement swearing that his company's financial statements are ``complete and accurate.'' ``I'll stand up for mine if they stand up for theirs,'' McNealy said, noting that President Bush, SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt, Attorney General John Ashcroft and Congress should be held accountable for the U.S. budget. The government routinely restates its unemployment numbers, he said. ``I have 39,000 employees,'' McNealy said. ``I'm doing everything I can to protect the integrity of our reports, but I have to deal with humans.'' Stick to the facts McNealy said companies and Wall Street place too much emphasis on the final earnings-per-share number. He said accountants should just present the facts in financial statements and leave the interpretation up to analysts and investors. McNealy said that when Sun reports its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings next week, the company will make some additional financial disclosures. ``We're going to be very proactive about what we disclose in terms of facts,'' he said. McNealy said the government shouldn't interfere in the area of CEO pay, which has come under criticism following huge stock-option grants to executives at faltering companies. ``That's for their shareholders,'' he said. ``This is America. You get paid what people are willing to pay you. The day the government starts regulating salaries is the day the country is headed down the hopper.'' McNealy said the system works. He earned $100,000 in salary and no bonus last year as Sun failed to meet its financial targets. McNealy said his $40-a-share stock options are all under water, although he does own 55.7 million shares of Sun, worth $301 million at Thursday's closing price of $5.40. Tax code reforms He said investors have to take more responsibility for their investments and read companies' financial disclosures. A CEO's pay is in the annual proxy statement. ``It's in pretty plain English,'' he said. ``If you can't understand it, then you shouldn't be investing.'' Rather than meddle with CEO pay, McNealy suggested that Congress reform the tax code and the accounting industry streamline its maze of rules and regulations. bayarea.com