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Technology Stocks : EMC How high can it go? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bob Frasca who wrote (14904)	5/7/2003 4:56:13 PM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17183

RE: EMC CEO Joe Tucci in January received 75,000 options to buy EMC stock at an exercise price of 1 cent per share. Critics argue such awards have no downside for executives." FWIW, Bob, I agree with you. The same thing happened on another stock I own, and I spoke with IR about it (both on the phone and in email), saying that the CEO should have real money tied into the company, not this penny crap. I said that if they had a CEO who "wouldn't work" if they didn't get these sweetheart deals (I've heard some lawyers, accountants and, of course, CEOs justify these outrageous deals with that line before), then they should just let him walk, he probably wasn't working anyway. They claimed they would pass it on. That particular company was doing even worse than EMC, a year or so later, the CEO was canned. Though I doubt that my email had much to do with it.

To: Bob Frasca who wrote (14904)	5/8/2003 5:39:14 AM
From: JDN	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 17183

Dear Bob: Yep, that, repricing options, outlandish pay etc etc are all things Warren Buffet is now getting disgusted with also. An election will will be coming up, wouldnt surprise me if we start seeing talk of Congress REINING IN Executive pay and perks. Frankly, compared to how it was even 10 years ago it seems to me its getting BEYOND THE PALE. JDN

To: Bob Frasca who wrote (14904)	5/8/2003 9:47:02 AM
From: John Koligman	Respond to of 17183

OT Bob - it seems that these 'executives' are always able to find a way to circumvent attempts to rein in their pay. When tax laws were changed for cash compensation paid by a corporation in excess of 1 million dollars, the options game kicked right in. Look at the latest example at American Airlines. CEO says to the 18k/year flight attendant - 'we have to cut your salary bigtime, things are tough'!! CEO says to his management team - 'you guys get retention bonuses equal to double your income if you hang around for a couple of years, and by the way, we just put 41 million into a guaranteed trust so that when American goes bust, you get your pensions'!!! You also have the 'add not worked years to your pension calculation scam' as evidenced by what was done for the new Treasury Secretary, John Snow. When asked, their corporate mouthpieces always seem to use the 'competitive pay level' argument. Well, how hard can it be to run a company into bankruptcy and collect big <ggg>... I've always been quite cynical about the market, and that has helped me greatly in my trading, but these guys are just over the top. Right now the only way is to 'vote with your feet' and stay out of stocks, but I'd sure like to see something done. CEO pay used to be something like 40-50 times the average worker, now isn't it something like 400 times on average??? Best regards, John