Dell’s directors get new Adamos…
With the end of proxy season came the end of Perkswatch, the temporary blog that was running as part of the NY Times Dealbook. And while the deluge of proxies has ended, there’s still proxies for companies that aren’t on a calendar year, like Dell (DELL) which filed its proxy yesterday.
While most of the stories I’ve seen about Dell’s proxy focus on Michael Dell’s diminished paycheck, I was far more interested in a disclosure about Dell’s directors, who seem to have acquired a new perk in the past year: top-of-the-line Dell laptops and technical support for two directors that we’re guessing is several cuts above what most Dell customers receive.
According to the proxy, each of Dell’s 10 directors, who include former Citigroup (C) executive Sallie Krawcheck and former Senator Sam Nunn, received a laptop worth $2,108. It’s not clear from the filing whether this is the cost of the laptop or the retail price, but we’re betting it’s the former, judging by the Adamo page on Dell’s website. It also appears to be a new perk, or, at the very least, a new disclosure, judging by earlier filings. And, in addition to a cash fee and stock options, it brings the total compensation paid to several directors, including Krawcheck over $500K last year.
While allowing directors to sample the goods is probably a good idea to provide real-life feedback on the items that a company sells, it seems equally important to test out various products — in this case, not just the top-of-the-line laptops, but the $449 models too — and the same customer service that ordinary customers get too.
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Posted in Tags: directors, perks |
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June 2nd, 2009 at 10:19 am
How timely for high end Dells. Obsolete already, lol.
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) is launching a new lighter, power-saving microprocessor intended for use in ultra-thin laptops. The new processor, named the Pentium SU2700, will be used in the high end ultra-thin laptop market which Intel expects “explosive growth in 2009″ for. Acer and Asustek have both said they will build laptops with the new chip.
Write to Chip Brian at cb@tradethetrend.com
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:49 am
Sam Nunn.
Holy cow.
These guys just do not know when to stop.
Greedy,greedy,greedy!
June 5th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Well, here’s another viewpoint. If you’re sitting in the first class lounge, watching teevee programs streamed from iTunes on my sexy thin MacBook Air, and someone comes up and says “hey, aren’t you a Dell hotshot? What’s with the Apple gear?”, that starts to turn into bad PR for Dell, Inc. So if I’m CEO of Dell, Inc, I’m pretty sure I want my board members to be sporting Dell badges on their laptops. And they’re not likely to want to do that if I give them Inspirons.
You don’t do this for “real-life feedback”. It’s marketing — to the board members, and to the people they brush up against.
June 8th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Might the settlement of board compensation have more to do with board members’ interests being aligned closer to those of top executives than the amount and type of remuneration necessary to attract and retain talented directors?
http://10qdetective.blogspot.com/2009/06/influence-peddling-in-dells-boardroom.html