Or
The case of the missing 2 percent (and I’m not talking about milk’s fat content)
It looks like Hewlett-Packard’s shareholders just shot down the company’s pay policies, though it could be a draw. It has been announced that 50 percent voted ‘nay’ and 48 percent voted ‘ay’. No one seems to know what happened to the other 2 percent. That makes HP the third company this year to receive a nay on pay.
As a matter of fact, HP’s GovernanceMetrics Scorecard only presents an average level of concern, largely because of the transitional nature of CEO compensation at the company. Because new CEO Leo Apotheker only joined in November last year, the Scorecard looked at outgoing CEO Mark Hurd’s compensation and his exit did not actually cost the company an excessive amount.
On the other hand, an earlier haiku blog posting was less complimentary about Mr. Apotheker’s golden hello, or signing package, and I reproduce it here… because I can.
Hewlett-Packard and the Golden Hello
Apotheker[y]
Invents philosopher’s stone
Just by taking job
I hadn’t noticed before writing the haiku that HP shared the same initials as Harry Potter, but now I have…. We already dealt with the sorcerer’s stone in the haiku (the book is called Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in the UK) but it looks like the board will have to open up its chamber of secrets, the compensation committee chairman will have to drink from the goblet of fire, the board’s compensation consultant –Compensation Advisory Partners, and management’s – Mercer – may end up as prisoners of Azkaban and Mr. Apotheker will probably need to borrow Harry’s invisibility cloak.
Elsewhere, GovernanceMetrics company The Corporate Library has an analyst comment that is also less than complimentary about Mr. Apotheker’s golden hello and doesn’t give much truck to the board’s actions in giving discretionary bonuses to the rest of the named executive officers.
Paul Hodgson – Senior Research Associate