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Amazon.com, The Bodyguard
theodp writes "While the press is running Amazon's standard we-can't-make-our-CEO-accept-more-than-$81,840 line again this year, the e-tailer's recent SEC filing does disclose an interesting new compensation tidbit. On top of what it spends to provide security for its CEO at business facilities and during business travel, Amazon shells out an estimated $1.1 million a year to cover the cost of security arrangements for billionaire CEO Jeff Bezos. Holy Jack Welch, Batman - that's a lot of door desks!"
That's $550/hour. Better than the $160,000/hour some ceos make
Microsoft has a new utility called Microsoft Protection Services. It's where salesmen from Redmond visit client sites and make sure that a great shame like something getting broken accidentally or someone getting injured in an unexpected accident doesn't happen.
Maybe Amazon just saw the need for some protection.
Things we know:
1) A lot of people on slashdot hate patents.
2) Jeff Bezos loves patents.
3) A lot of people on slashdot hate Jeff Bezos.
4) A lot of people on slashdot are libertarians.
5) Libertarians approve of gun rights.
6) A lot of people on slashdot have guns.
And:
7) Profit!
I pretend to know more than I really do by mooching off google and wikipedia.
It's a rich guy who isn't trying that hard to get richer.
Silence is golden... and duct tape is silver.
From TFA:
/. surrounding Ebert's comments as to whether video games are art).
"If you look at this building, you can open the windows and get fresh air and natural light. Those things actually matter to people. Having a mahogany credenza does not." He laughs powerfully. "There are no mahogany credenzas here. There's no art on the walls.
Ok, now I agree that what is hanging on most office walls is an expensive waste of space, but by saying it in this way, it makes the guy sound like he's saying art doesn't matter to people. That's a ballsy statement that I would highly contest (just look at the uproar here on
I'm not really sure I see what the big deal is. While $1.1 million might seem like an excessive amount to spend on security for one person, it isn't compensation to Bezos. It's an expenditure for security of a company official while he's conducting company business, not a paycheck.
There's a not that uncommon tax scam for company owners which works as the following:
...
...
- Company owner is also company CEO
- Company CEO is payed minimum/symbolic wages
- Company pays for just about any expense of the owner/CEO and his family
Thus "safe"-house, bulletproof limo, bodyguard-driver, security-certified cleaning company, bulletproof yacht
I reckon that for a listed company, the positive advertising (and share price boosting) effects of divulging a CEO's low salary would make such a scam even sweeter
You'd have to think that with money like the extremely wealthy and extremely popular have, they have very legit security concerns. That's why I didn't like the pie episode. Hate the guy all you want (and in my professional life, I really do despise Bill and MSFT), but whatever you might think of a person, there's no reason to make hi, fear for his life. And for me, when I saw the pie movie, there's a second on Bills face when it looks like he's has the epiphany "Fuck, I'm a potential target for [terrorists | anarchists | crazed anti-indutrialists | ELFers | PETA | someone who thinks I'm a symbol], and this person is about to hit me with something." I saw a real fear of anticipated violence.
And for me that's over the line.
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm
This is the way rich stay rich; have a company they control officially make all the money and spend all the money on them. That way it never shows up as their personal income or expenses so the tax man stays away would be litigators do not have much to try to sue for.
That is the way the smart rich people do it. Middle and low class lamers (me included) make all their income as salary and so are taxed on everything we make. Also, if we are sued we could lose everything we have.
There must be some tax advantage reason for the dollar amount get gets in salary.
So don't fault Jeff, he is just using the American system to his advantage.
--just some thing to think about.
Sincerely,
Middle Class Lamer
I don't think an aged Kevin Costner tenderly carrying Jeff Bezos away is quite the mental image I need today, thankyousomuch...
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
Certainly he needs bodyguards, and rightly so. The market for kidnapping billionaires' relatives for ransom is quite lucrative. Up in Canada one of our billionaires, Jim Pattison, paid an undisclosed ransom to kidnappers after his daughter was kidnapped. She was returned unharmed, but no doubt Pattison's security detail was upgraded. Didn't the family that owns the Heineken brewery in Holland suffer the same? The board of directors of any large company have a responsibility to the shareholders to keep themselves, and the Chairman and CEO, out of trouble.
---- You are fully entitled to my opinion.
You are talking about the man who directed one of the top internet brands in the world through the bubble burst and into profitability. $1.1 million plus $80k ($1.18 million) for a CEO is chump change. They could double or triple the cost of his security and salary and he'd still be worth it. When you have a CEO that makes your company adapt and grow to new trends as well as Amazon has, paying the CEO less than 0.05% of your company's revenue isn't insane.
Even one decent bodyguard 24 hours a day is going to cost you some $400,000 a year. And I am sure those guys need gear and gas and expense accounts. I dont think this amounts to much.