Sirius Satellite Radio's President of Operations and Sales, James Meyer, will continue to serve through April 30th, 2010 at his present salary of $900,000, it was released yesterday in an SEC filing.The filing reveals Jim Meyer's employment agreement, which I'll attempt to outline below:
If Meyer is terminated without cause, or he quits "for good reason," Sirius will pay him a lump sum of his current salary - plus a bonus of 60% of his base salary, or the prior year's bonus actually paid to him (whichever is greater). That brings Meyer's possible severance package to roughly $1,440,000 if I'm calculating it correctly. Meyer may also elect to retire in April 2008, April 2009 or April 2010 - at which point Sirius will pay him the same amount.
Should the merger with Sirius and XM go through, Meyer can elect to retire right after the merger or the following April after the merger. Post-merger, if Meyer is terminated (again, "without cause") or quits (again, "for good reason") during the 12 months following the merger, Sirius will pay him a lump sum equal to two times the previously stated amount. My math estimates that to be over $2.8 million.
In the event that Sirius' payment to Meyer is deemed as an "excess parachute payment" under Section 280G of the Internal Revenue Code - and as such would be subject to an excise tax - Sirius will pay Meyer the amount of that tax, plus any additional amount, in order to place him in the exact same financial position as if the tax were not imposed.
Jim Meyer's home is based in Indianapolis, Indiana. But since Sirius' offices are in NYC, Sirius pays for the cost of coach air-fare (that's actually reasonable). Sirius also pays for Meyer's apartment in New York City, up to a maximum of $5,000 per month for rent, including any living expenses like phone, cable, electric, etc.
[View SEC Filing]
Anyone else find this to be just downright disgusting? Gary Parsons, CHAIRMAN OF XM, makes just over half of what this guy makes.
http://www.orbitcast.com/archives/xm-executives-reach-compensation-agreement.html
Forget all that. They pay for his apartment AND airfare?? $5000 will get you a damn good place for a 1 bedroom in Manhattan.
That's ridiculous.
Forget all that. They pay for his apartment AND airfare?? $5000 will get you a damn good place for a 1 bedroom in Manhattan.
You know a lot of executives of NASDAQ-traded companies who are living in one bedroom apartments? It sounds pretty good, but he IS the president of the company.
The former CEO of AT&T is walking out with ~$150M in his retirement, http://gigaom.com/2007/04/28/king-ed-his-retirement-package/
1.4M is a lot, but small by executive standards.