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Choice’s choice for Vice Chairman…

Monday, June 30th, 2008

Late Thursday, Choice Hotels (CHH), which we’ve footnoted twice since April, announced that it was accelerating its succession plan so that Stephen Joyce (whose appointment Wendy footnoted here) would take over as CEO on June 26. Meanwhile, former CEO Charles Ledsinger Jr. would become vice chairman.
While the release mentioned in passing an after-tax accounting charge [...]

A well-heeled exit

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

When Steven Madden Ltd. (SHOO) first announced the exit of CEO Jamieson Karson in March, I didn’t think much of the boilerplate in the 8-K stating that
Mr. Karson’s resignation was not the result of any disagreement with the Company’s operations, policies or practices. For the purposes of determining any payments to which Mr. Karson [...]

Another sour merger…

Thursday, April 24th, 2008

Sometimes, a disclosure in a recent filing prompts you to dig a bit deeper and look back. That’s exactly what happened when I caught the following disclosure in Brandywine’s (BDN) proxy filed yesterday:
Represents (i) $516,685 for the cost for use of a private aircraft that we provide to Mr. Prentiss as a continuing benefit under [...]

Falling into the Gap…

Thursday, April 17th, 2008

It’s no secret that Gap (GPS), whose brands also include Old Navy and Banana Republic, has been treading water for quite some time. Just take a look at the 10 year chart. And just last week, the company reported an 18% drop in same store sales.
Late yesterday, Gap filed its latest proxy and while much [...]

What does $425K a month buy IDT?

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008

Motti Lichtenstein, CEO of the IDT Telecom subsidiary of IDT Corporation (IDT), departed on April 1 “to pursue other business opportunities” (press release here). If I were Mr. Lichtenstein, I’d be in no rush to find those opportunities, given the nice post-separation deal he and IDT have cooked up. (IDT has been a bit [...]