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Oracle Shareholders Vote Against Ellison's Compensation Package (Again)
angry tapir writes "A majority of Oracle shareholders have once again voted against the company's executive pay practices, including for CEO Larry Ellison. The vote at Oracle's annual shareholder meeting is nonbinding, and follows complaints from some large shareholders and their representatives who say Ellison is overpaid compared to his peers. Ellison is paid US$1 in salary, receiving the rest of his pay in stock options. In Oracle's past fiscal year, that totaled $76.9 million. Shareholders voted against Oracle's executive pay practices at last year's meeting as well."
No, he shouldn't
Spoken like a true socialist.
Or, y'know, somebody familiar with the concept of 'property'. Oracle is a publicly traded company (not that this is always a good idea; but they did it), not some sole proprietor outfit. It sold substantial chunks of itself to assorted third parties, so now they get a say. That's about as far from 'socialism' as you can reasonably get.
It doesn't matter whether or not the claim that "Larry Ellison made that company" is true or not because he doesn't own most of it. He is a major shareholder(a trifle under 25%, I think); but he gets paid as an employee of a company owned by a collection of people, including himself, not because Oracle is his personal candy jar and he can get paid what he likes.
He's certainly the most identifiable personality; but charisma is not the foundation of property rights...
Plus it's not Ellison's company, it's the shareholders company. If shareholders think he is overpaid that should have some impact. If he disagrees, he can just quit, right? (That's the bullshit line that used to justify treating workers like shit, so it feels really good to use on a prick like Ellison.)
What this really shows is that corporate governance is broken. The board doesn't work for the shareholders, they are at the beck and call of the CEO. He puts them on the board, they make huge amounts for the little work they do, and so they do whatever the CEO wants. They are a rubber stamp. This is a lot closer to feudalism then real capitalism. The workers are serfs, the shareholders are not much better off, and the lords who run the show take everything they can lay their hands on. Welcome to non-capitalist, not a democracy 21st America.
Why is Snark Required?
As an employee, he gets paid $1/yr. This is not about what he is doing as an employee.
This is about what he is doing as a corporate officer in setting company policies that award himself with $77 million/yr. This is about abusing the corporation so he can diddle the taxman (in the USA all those stock options give him an immediate amount of financial clout that he does not have to pay taxes on until he exercises them. Further, his tax rate at that time will depend on exactly how he structures the transactions that exercise those options).
But the main point is that this corporate officer is twisting company policy to his personal benefit of $77 million/yr and the majority of owners of the company don't like him screwing around with their investment that way.
Will
It's funny because Friedman was far from laissez-faire and believed in central control of the money supply.
It's just that the baboons who pass for talking heads nowadays haven't actually read his work.
I don't like Oracle and think their products are suck-ass bloatware, but Larry Ellison made that company.
And then he sold that company to the shareholders. His profit is the money he got for the shares.
Finally, someone who understands!
And it's sad that the above comments turned it into a Capitalist/Socialist thing.
What we're seeing is your typical corporate CEO strategy - outlandish pay for mediocre performance. And I think that's the REAL issue here.
And folks, remember stock options DO NOT GET TAXED LIKE REGULAR INCOME. So, he's paying close to zero tax on this and differing gains - maybe forever by moving them offshore. This billionaire is getting a sweet sweet deal on the middle class' back.
Go look at your pay stubs or at at that check you send to the IRS every quarter my fellow small businessmen and ask yourself, "Why am I not getting that same deal?"