"An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted." - Arthur Miller

Friday, June 20, 2008

Trailers, Knight Rider GPS, and 15 CEO Pay-offs

Terminator 4 Salvation Trailer - AICN has a description of the teaser trailer for the movie that will be release with The Dark Knight on July 18th. I wouldn't be surprised if it pops up on the internets before then.

Wall-E Trailer - A third trailer for Wall-E is out. The movie starts in theatres next week. Its Pixar which is all I need to know.


The Mummy 3 Trailer - I enjoyed the other Mummy films as good old fashion popcorn fun. This one looks like more of that and even better it has Jet Li. About my only complaint is the gorgeous Rachel Weisz wouldn't reprise the role that made her famous. The film is out August 1st.
Knight Rider GPS - It’s a new device from Mio that makes use of William Daniel's voice to give you a little KITT love. Whenever it’s released, it will be $300, about average for GPS devices.

15 Most Astonishing CEO Pay-Offs - It must be good to become a CEO of a big company. No matter how well you do or do not do your job, you are assured of a multi-million dollar pay-out whenever you are shown the door. I look at the below numbers (which don't include additional benefits worth millions) and kept help but wonder how many of their employees (and customers) that kind of change could have helped.
1. Lee R Raymond, Exxon - $351 million for retirement
2. Edward Whitacre, AT&T - $158.5 million retirement
3. Richard Handler, The Jeffries Group - $202 million retirement (after only 7 years)
4. Michael D. Eisner, Disney - $1 billion+ estimate, forced out
5. Henry McKinnell, Pfizer - $213 million, forced out
6. Jack Welch, GE - $9 million per year for life plus many benefits for retiring
7. Charles Prince, Citigroup - $42 million + $53 million in stock, retired
8. Stanley O'Neal, Merrill Lynch - $161.6, forced retirement
9. Robert Nardelli, Home Depot - $210, forced out
10. James Kitt, Gillette - $165 million + $13 million for taxes, forced out due to merger
11. Dick Cheney, Halliburton - $34 million retirement + yearly compensation + 430,000 stock (which the Iraq war helped increase in value)
12. Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide - $23.8 million, force out after nearly destroying the company
13. Robert Toll, Toll Brothers - $17.2 million retirement + 2% of companies earnings before taxes
14. John Mack, Morgan Stanley - $40 million + stock bonus
15. Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs - $60.7 million bonus

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