GM Cuts Cash Payout to CEO After Weak 2004 (Reuters) [View All]

[Up2Late]

(Oh, The Humanity! How's a CEO supposed to make it on ONLY $9.9 Million Dollars total compensation?):sarcasm:

GM Cuts Cash Payout to CEO After Weak 2004

Fri Apr 29, 2005 05:41 PM ET

By Michael Ellis

DETROIT (Reuters) - Cash compensation paid to General Motors Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner fell by 43 percent last year, as its automotive operations lost money on weaker U.S. sales and market share. GM, the world's largest auto maker, also said in a securities filing on Friday that cash compensation paid to its top five executive officers fell 37 percent last year versus 2003.

GM's net earnings fell to $2.8 billion last year from $3.8 billion previously, due in part to a $886 million after-tax payment to Italy's Fiat SpA to dissolve a failed industrial partnership. Including that payout, GM's automotive unit posted a loss of $89 million versus a profit of $995 million in 2003. GM recalled more than 11 million vehicles in 2004, a record for the auto maker. GM's U.S. sales fell about 1.1 percent last year, cutting its U.S. market share to about 27.3 percent for 2004 from 28 percent in 2003, according to Autodata.

Wagoner's cash compensation last year fell to $4.8 million from $8.5 million in 2003. He also received options for 400,000 GM shares valued at $5.1 million. In 2003, the company granted him options for 500,000 shares valued at $4.3 million at the time they were granted. The company didn't pay any long-term incentives to GM executives last year because the shares failed to hit a company target.

The Detroit auto maker's fortunes have worsened this year. Earlier this month, GM posted a first quarter loss of $1.1 billion, including a loss of $1.56 billion in North America alone, its worst quarterly result since it skirted bankruptcy in 1992. GM's financial deterioration has caused its shares to drop sharply, and ratings agencies to warn that it could downgrade the auto maker's debt to "junk" status at any time. Earlier in April, Wagoner took day-to-day control of GM's North American automotive operations from two deputies, a move analysts said puts his job on the line as he tries to turn around the money-losing business.

(more at link above)