Circuit City departing CEO gets $1.8M in severance

[UpInArms]

Source: Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. - Circuit City Stores Inc.'s departing chief executive is receiving at least $1.8 million in a severance deal after resigning from his post at the consumer electronics retailer earlier this week, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday.

Philip J. Schoonover, who agreed to step down Monday as chief executive, chairman and president of the Richmond, Va.-based company, will receive his annual base salary and the target bonus for the current fiscal year, each worth $900,000, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The 48-year-old also will receive health and welfare benefit plan participation for two years, up to $50,000 in outplacement services and the acceleration of the vesting of his stock options and restricted stock awards that would have vested prior to Oct. 4, 2009.

His compensation was based on an employment agreement made when Schoonover joined the company in 2004 from rival Best Buy Co., where he was executive vice president of customer segments.

The company enforced the "involuntary termination without cause" or "termination for good reason" clauses of the agreement, according to the filing.

Circuit City has seen only one profitable quarter since the second quarter of 2007, but has defended its multiyear turnaround. In May, the company announced it hired Goldman Sachs & Co. to explore strategic options, but has never given an official timetable for any action. Its shares sank to their lowest level in more than 22 years on Thursday, falling as low as $1.40 before closing at $1.44, down 10 cents, or 6.5 percent.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080925/ap_on_bi_ge/circuit_city_ceo_severance

---

no profits, but lots of cash for this loser of a leader

wow! that's just what is going on everywhere in this country!

lots of money for big losers and the shaft for everyone else.

[LeftyMom]

1. For running the company into the ground?

I used to work for them. They used to be pretty great to work for, in terms of pay and bennies, as well as having good employee training. When they moved from commission to hourly, they did it in such a way that they didn't pay shit, lost all of their experienced people, and now they have teenagers who don't know anything about the product doing sales. If I wanted useless information from braindead staff I'd go to Best Buy, at least they're a bit cheaper.

[whistle]

2. Sure, he looted the CC employee retirement plan worth hundreds of millions

...correct? Isn't he the one who screwed the employees our of some sort of fund? ENRON models these CEOs are using on all American companies

[tbyg52]

14. Isn't he also the guy who fired emplyoees en masse

and then told them they could apply for their old jobs at lower wages?

[The Backlash Cometh]

32. What the fuck is going on here?

This man sounds like a nightmare. Raiding pensions plans of Americans to feed bad stock, firing people and lowering the pay. Who benefited from all this lunacy? Does any one organization or group stand out?

[Debi]

3. What a paltry sum compared to the $40 mil. we're used to seeing

:eyes:

Wish someone would give me a multi-million dollar company to run into the ground and then give me a multi-million dollar 'severance' to go away quietly.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. I could go for that. And I could screw them over in record time, too, with such decisions as

1) running all our advertising in Ig-pay Atin-lay
2) using a base 19 counting system for all mathematical considerations
3) going "green" with solar and wind turbine roof systems, backed up by a billion hamster wheels
4) raiding petty cash to buy shares in hamster food and bedding companies
5) forcing everyone to order in from a local organic catering service (owned by my relatives)
6) cozying up to progressive lobbyists
6) insisting that "casual Fridays" become "nudist Fridays"
7) hiring Chippendale dancers as temp workers (but only on Fridays)

What else should I do? :evilgrin:

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. No suggestions?

[Debi]

15. No improving on those ideas!

:hi:

[GreenPartyVoter]

21. Thanks :^D

[Ilsa]

4. I could have fucked up their company for alot less salary and bonus. nt

[codjh9]

5. Oh man that's funny! Yeah, how can you put food on your family with only 1.8 mill?!?

[aquart]

6. So little? They must be about to close their doors.

[chill_wind]

7. Shoot. Goldman gave Paulson an $18.7 Million Bonus

for working *half a year* as chief executive of the Goldman Sachs Group before he departed for Bush.

He's earning it now, though.

[Phred42]

9. Screw CC - after what they did to their employees last year

I refuse to ever go in there again

[guruoo]

26. CC's in trouble. That employee purge really damaged their street cred...

Best Buy has been gobbling them up like they did CompUSA.

[Phred42]

35. Yep - really stupid fascist move by CC

[DemoTex]

10. Chickenshit. The US Airways CEO who had my pension terminated got $10+ million.

And that was when he got fired by the board several months after bankrupting the airline. MORE THAN 10-FUCKING MILLION U$D FOR SHIT-CANNING THE COMPANY!

[fed_up_mother]

11. Just $1.8 million? That's chicken feed!

[Turbineguy]

12. It's called "staying competitive"

The competition is for who can fuck up the most and get the biggest bucks for doing so.

I'm waiting to find out what Bush's walking money is. It's gotta be pretty fucking big.

[OhioChick]

16. Wasn't it Circuit City

that handed out pink slips a while back because they felt their employees were making too much?

[guruoo]

27. Circuit City fired 3400, replaced them with lower paid workers...

updated 5:39 p.m. CT, Wed., March. 28, 2007

RICHMOND, Va. - A new plan for layoffs at Circuit City is openly targeting better-paid workers, risking a public backlash by implying that its wages are as subject to discounts as its flat-screen TVs.

The electronics retailer, facing larger competitors and falling sales, said Wednesday that it would lay off about 3,400 store workers — immediately — and replace them with lower-paid new hires as soon as possible.

The laid-off workers, about 8 percent of the company’s total work force, would get a severance package and a chance to reapply for their former jobs, at lower pay, after a 10-week delay, the company said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17837882/

Circuit City's plan to fire 3,400 will have ripple effects

By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY
Circuit City Stores' (CC) decision to lay off 3,400 employees in order to hire lower-paid replacements is raising questions about the impact of severe cost-cutting on employee morale.

The consumer electronics retailer announced Wednesday that it was immediately firing store associates "who were paid well above the market-based salary range for their role." New workers will be paid less, although Circuit City did not reveal the pay of the workers.

Laying off workers who earn higher pay raises the risk of deflating the morale of employees who are left behind, says Penelope Trunk, author of Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success.

"People left behind are probably thinking they don't have a future there," Trunk says.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2007-03-28-circuit-city-layoffs_N.htm

[Captiosus]

28. I haven't been in a Circuit City since that affair.

I'll admit I keep looking at their ads, and they have yet to show me any reason why I should go to Circuit City over Best Buy. Their prices are higher, their selection less diverse, and their staff less helpful. They laid all these people off and brought in cheaper workers but prices thereafter (on all things not hard capped - video games for instance) went up.

Beyond that, I refuse to support a company that shits on loyal employees by firing them and hiring less trained, less qualified, cheap labor. If Best Buy pulled that, I'd ditch on them, too, and get all of my electronics straight from the manufacturers online and appliances at other stores.. oh, wait, I stopped buying appliances at Best Buy already. Hmmmmmm.

[Borgnine]

31. Me too.

I'll only support a company that supports its employees. Haven't shopped at Circuit City in over a year and I don't miss it.

[snooper2]

33. I usually shop at Fry's now...

sometimes Best Buy if they have a better price...

Fuck Circuit City, Fuck Home Depot

[tbyg52]

39. I'm past you on that - I stopped even looking at their ads.

I don't want to know, because I might be tempted to go there.

[OhioChick]

34. Thanks....I thought it was them. n/t

[bitchkitty]

17. Damn! When the county laid me off, I got $1600. n/t

[Mika]

18. My last employer let me go while I was on a 1 week unpaid vacation. No severance at all.

:(

[dnclpp]

19. I don't know how I feel about this

I don't know how I feel about this, I kinda like circuit city, I guess I'm a bit of a geeky girl like that. :P

[UpInArms]

20. welcome to DU, dnclpp

glad you're here to figure out how you feel when one of the CEOs fall down and get rich while the rest of us fall down and go broke

:hi:

[dnclpp]

22. Hey stop picking on me! :(

I guess I'm just saying I like circuit city, theres nothing wrong with that is there?

Plus with all this talk about 700 Billion Dollars I guess my sense of what's excessive last been skewed lately :P

[chalky]

23. I know what you mean, dnclpp...

It's a seriously sad day when I can see a severance package like that and say to myself, "Gee, is that all?"

[UpInArms]

24. sorry for "picking on you", dnclpp

just a bit prickly tonight

welcome to DU!

:hi:

[DainBramaged]

25. Fuck him

When CC decided to exit the appliance business, it was their undoing. Now Best Buy and Home Depot eat their lunch.

Fuck you Phil, nice legacy

[Art_from_Ark]

29. I'm in the wrong business

If only I had gone to business school and learned how to be a parasitic CEO, I could have made more in one payout by running a company into the ground than I will make in my entire lifetime trying to provide companies with useful services :banghead:

[OakCliffDem]

30. And the rich just keep getting richer

[boilinmad]

36. Meanwhile...

...people are wondering what happened with the markets? Fucking GREED, thats what.

[E-Z-B]

37. I wasn't happy with them for waging war on Speedy1961

over at dvdtalk and cheapassgamer

[classysassy]

38. Gangsters without guns

crimes in the ivory towers.

[slackmaster]

40. And they couldn't fix my fucking tape player

:argh: