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American Tower has one again become a target of regulators. The telecom company said in a regulatory filing it has received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission requesting certain documents from 2007 through the present, including in particular documents related to the Company's tax accounting and reporting.
It looks like 2010 was a boom year for CEO compensation. According to a new analysis of proxies conducted by Towers Watson, median total cash compensation increased 17 percent for CEOs last year. This compares with a 3 percent median increase the prior year. To compute cash compensation, the consulting firm includes base salary, as well as annual and discretionary bonus payments.
If you take a look at the compensation tables in the proxies of the Wall Street giants, it is hard to believe it is only two years or so since the global financial meltdown. You would almost think the top executives are running successful hedge funds, given their gargantuan gains. And to think they complained that the brief government involvement in their affairs.
Stock buybacks are staging a comeback...sort of. In the fourth quarter of 2010, total value of share repurchases by S&P 500 companies surged 80.6 percent to $86.36 billion from the comparable period the previous year, according to Standard & Poor's. It was also up 8.6 percent from the third quarter of 2010.
The former chief financial officer and founder and former CEO of Vitesse Semiconductor were charged for their roles in an accounting and securities fraud scheme. Louis Tomasetta, the co-founder and former CEO and former CFO and Executive Vice President Eugene Hovanec , were charged with securities fraud, making false entries in the books and records of a corporation, making false filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and conspiracy for their roles in a scheme to manipulate Vitesse's reported financial statements, according to Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
It looks like traditional employee benefits are in the cross-hairs of cost conscious finance execs. According to a new survey of chief financial officers and senior comptrollers conducted by Grant Thornton LLP, 30 percent are planning to reduce health care benefits, 23 percent are planning on reducing bonuses and 18 percent are prepared to reduce stock options/equity based compensation.
Finally some good news for KB Home. The homebuilder said the Securities and Exchange Commission has concluded its investigation into the company's accounting and disclosures and does not plan to recommend any enforcement action. The letter from the regulator concludes the SEC's investigation, which began in October 2009.
The anti-executive pay movement is building momentum. About 55 percent of shareholders of KeyCorp last week gave the thumbs down on the bank's pay package contained in its proxy during an advisory vote.
"Investors Reject Motorola's Pay Practices," exclaims the headline on the blog posted by RiskMetrics. The proxy advisory firm said Motorola received just 46 percent support during an advisory vote on its executive pay practices, citing as its source investors who attended the company's May 3 annual meeting.
As the economy continues to improve and more companies accumulate excess cash, they are increasingly rewarding investors with cash dividends and stock buybacks. And, although both dividends and buybacks are expected to increase this year, the pace of buybacks has accelerated in recent quarters.
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