By Paul Hodgson – CCO and Senior Research Associate
Events Analyst Marge Schwietering found this astounding set of admissions in a survey published on July 10th.
A quarter of Wall Street executives see wrongdoing as a key to success, according to a survey by whistleblower law firm Labaton Sucharow released on Tuesday. In a survey of 500 senior executives in the United States and the UK, 26 percent of respondents said they had observed or had firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing in the workplace, while 24 percent said they believed financial services professionals may need to engage in unethical or illegal conduct to be successful.
Which begs a couple of questions, like what proportion of the 26 percent who observed such conduct reported it? And what about the 76 percent who didn’t believe that unethical or illegal conduct was necessary for success? Are they all unsuccessful?
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it….”
Compensation Analyst Team Leader Scott Patterson spotted this in Alliant Techsystems 2012 proxy statement
“Here’s 50 grand, no questions asked.” Comments Scott. He’s right that a perk allowance is fairly common but the lack of reporting is less common. And as he says, 50 grand is neither here nor there.
The table below shows the components of this [All Other Compensation] column for fiscal year 2012, which include perquisites, tax gross-ups, and Company matching contributions to ATK’s defined contribution plans. The amounts represent the amount paid or accrued by, or the incremental cost to, the Company.
| Name |
|
Perquisite |
|
Dividends(2) |
|
Disability |
|
401(k) Plan |
|
Umbrella |
|
Tax |
|
Other |
|
|||||||
| Mark W. DeYoung |
$ |
50,004 |
$ |
5,353 |
$ |
2,666 |
$ |
0 |
$ |
4,630 |
$ |
35,119 |
$ |
104,775 |
||||||||
| Neal S. Cohen |
$ |
3,333 |
$ |
3,779 |
$ |
0 |
$ |
0 |
$ |
89 |
$ |
2,765 |
$ |
10,218 |
||||||||
| Michael A. Kahn |
$ |
30,000 |
$ |
5,056 |
$ |
2,554 |
$ |
0 |
$ |
1,070 |
$ |
33,631 |
$ |
106,394 |
||||||||
| Blake E. Larson |
$ |
30,000 |
$ |
690 |
$ |
2,587 |
$ |
7,421 |
$ |
1,070 |
$ |
0 |
$ |
1,585 |
||||||||
| Keith D. Ross |
$ |
20,000 |
$ |
704 |
$ |
2,936 |
$ |
9,863 |
$ |
1,070 |
$ |
0 |
$ |
34,383 |
||||||||
| Thomas G. Sexton |
$ |
0 |
$ |
2,340 |
$ |
2,653 |
$ |
8,055 |
$ |
0 |
$ |
0 |
$ |
1,947 |
||||||||
| John L. Shroyer |
$ |
13,333 |
$ |
0 |
$ |
1,235 |
$ |
3,433 |
$ |
1,070 |
$ |
0 |
$ |
1,367 |
||||||||
(1) The allowance is not a reimbursement for perquisites. Instead, the annual amount is paid in cash in monthly installments. Accordingly, executive officers have the flexibility in determining how to spend their perquisite dollars and are not required to report how the amounts are used.
What I want to know is what’s the extra four dollars for CEO DeYoung for?
Events Team Leader Mark Magee read this LA Times report on an unfortunate marketing ploy by beleaguered Blackberry firm RIM.
Research in Motion can’t catch a break. A tweet sent out Wednesday meant to promote its BlackBerry brand has backfired on the Canadian company, with many people using the tweet to bash RIM’s phones. The company tweeted from its @BlackBerry account “Fill in the blank: BlackBerry helps me ________.”
However, many of the people who responded didn’t find BlackBerry too helpful. “Realize how thankful I am for my #iPhone,” said one user, in one of the tamest yet worst responses RIM could have received. Not to be outdone, though, another user said the same about Android.
Another user said she throws her phone at the wall and that was in response to another user who was complaining about how BlackBerry phones require you to pull their batteries out when the phone freezes and crashes. “BlackBerry helps me with my _______. • Throwing skills,” said another user.
Fill in that blank! But surely someone there must have thought: boy that lays us out for some unwelcome comments. Next time they should provide a pull down list that is limited to nice things like “make blackberry and apple crumble….” But why would you need an iPhone to make blackberry crumble? Am I missing something here?
Give a new meaning to the term: generic drug
Events Analyst Dovid Muyderman offers this from a Dyax Corp 8-K on July 11th.
Dyax Corp. (“Dyax”) and Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies UK Limited (“Fujifilm”) have entered into an agreement, dated effective June 29, 2012, for the commercial manufacture and supply of bulk drug substance for KALBITOR® (ecallantide). Pursuant to the Agreement, Fujifilm has committed to be available to Dyax to manufacture bulk drug substance through 2020.
The agreement is non-exclusive and there are no financial obligations for Dyax under the agreement unless and until binding orders for drug substance are placed by Dyax.
I know the bottom’s fallen out of the film business, but what is Fujifilm doing providing bulk drug substance? What is bulk drug substance? Ground up rolls of film they can’t sell anymore? Develop that one.