Ailing Visteon gives new exec $3 million bonus

[pupp1]

Tuesday, May 24, 2005



Ailing Visteon gives new exec $3 million bonus



By Eric Mayne / The Detroit News
Struggling auto parts maker Visteon Corp., in an unusual move, will pay new president and chief operating officer Donald Stebbins a $3 million signing bonus if he stays with the company for three years.

Stebbins also will receive an $850,000 annual salary.

Analysts say the signing bonus -- high for a Detroit parts maker -- reflects the difficulties Visteon is facing in recruiting management.

"You have to pay market price for senior executives," said David Cole, head of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor. Stebbins, 47, was lured from rival Lear Corp.

Visteon spokesman Kim Welch called Stebbins "a highly regarded, seasoned executive."

Visteon and former parent Ford Motor Co. are negotiating a broad restructuring of the troubled auto parts maker, which has lost nearly $3 billion since 2003 and hasn't posted an annual profit since it was spun off from Ford in 2000.
Link

[sharknose]

If Visteon isn't backrupt in three years, he'll deserve it. They're in a real tough spot and I guarrantee he'll end up with lots of gray hairs if he doesn't have them already.

[tgagneguam]

Executives who are truly great and have vision and dedication don't need signing bonuses to remain at a company. Just ask real executives like Ken Iverson of Nucor. My guess is the $3 million will do nothing to encourage him to do a better job. Please...

[Havasavana]

Originally Posted by tgagneguam

Executives who are truly great and have vision and dedication don't need signing bonuses to remain at a company. Just ask real executives like Ken Iverson of Nucor. My guess is the $3 million will do nothing to encourage him to do a better job. Please...

I don't think they even have to be truly great. Just decent human beings with a sense of fairness. We see these guys, and women, jumping from one sinking ship to another collecting golden life rafts at each stop, while the employees and stock holders get burned. They get a sign-up bonus, more if they agree to stay, then more when they get canned. Or, if they jump ship, the board of the company where they go replaces any 'hit' they take in foregoing a 'stay put' bonus lost stock options, etc.. Hard to beat deals like these. Carly Fiorina got $3 million bonus plus $65 million in stock to sign on, annual bonuses in the range of $2-3 million for good performance then $21 million when she got the boot from HP. A little hard to understand how she could be so good to get annual bonuses then get canned so quickly. Her co-conspirator in the merging of HP and Compaq, Mike Capellas, got over $14 million for quitting HP within a year after the merger. Huh? Yes, he had an incentive to quit within a year.