Bonuses OK'd for Borders

[OhioChick]

Source: Detroit Free Press

Apr 23, 2011

A lawyer for bookseller Borders Group says a judge has approved paying executives up to $6.6 million in bonuses as the company works to reorganize under bankruptcy court protection.

The Office of the U.S. Trustee objected to an earlier request to pay about $8 million in bonuses.

Lawyer Andrew Glenn confirmed that a judge in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved the lower amount on Friday.

Borders says the bonuses are necessary to retain executives in key posts. Forty-seven executives have left the company since Borders filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection.

Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20110423/BUSINESS06/104230310/Bonuses-OK-d-Borders

[Initech]

1. These fucking criminals shouldn't get a penny.

[blueclown]

2. How do you get a "bonus" if you've driven your company into bankruptcy?

[wordpix]

7. because "the bonuses are necessary to retain executives in key posts."

It's just so obvious it's necessary to retain them, don't you see? :sarcasm:

[BR_Parkway]

20. Yeah, there's such a shortage of people looking for a job right now

It's amazing how we've developed this 'culture' where key executives are treated like royalty. They do a frigging job, there are plenty of other people who can do that job - probably better in many cases.

[Prof Lester]

25. Mills saw this comin' a long time ago.

C. Wright Mills said back in the fifties there was a revolution of managers underway. We see the results today: disaster on all sides. These people are employees of the company but since they control the purse strings, they pay themselves as if they were capitalists (which they are not.) We know they are not capitalists because they can (and do, constantly) bankrupt companies and walk away with huge stipends.. on to other companies to do the same thing. Over and over again. They do so without risk to themselves. Well look, the bailouts recently prove that, big time! I've heard 7 TRILLION in bailouts.. money that "we" borrowed from the bankers (!) to give to the bankers (!!) and now the country is on the hook for THE INTEREST (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Ay carumba!:grr:

[Gidney N Cloyd]

8. Hell, how do you get a JOB OFFER afterwards? Borders really has to pay bonuses to prevent poaching?

[wordpix]

10. up is down and right is left

[Buzz Clik]

3. Bastards closed our local Borders. The only non-university bookstore in town.

Thanks for that! Take your $6.6 million and stick it where the sun don't shine.

[Prof Lester]

26. Not only that..

But like Walmart and other "big box stores" they drove all the little bookshops out of business! I remember when I was young there were dozens and dozens of little bookstores. Being an autodidact (er.. book junkie) I knew where all of them were. Then along came the big chains. Now the big chains are going broke.. leaving NO BOOKSTORES!!!! Hmm. A plot to stupify the people? Hey, Faux news proves that to be true, do it not?

[ChromeFoundry]

4. Give a bonus to the ones that cause the bankruptcy?

WTF. Since when does sucking at your job earn you a bonus?

These sons a bitches should be hung out to dry, like they have done to the employees.

This judge needs to get bonked on the head to get himself thinking correctly.

Tar and feathers for the lot of them!

[iwishiwas]

5. Folks struggle to buy groceries, gas, pay heat-and then things

like this assault them everyday.

[wordpix]

6. and that's the way it is in corporatist Amerika, I'm not surprised...still,

I'm sending this to my buddy who was wailing about poor Borders closing down, end of an era and so on

[arikara]

9. If they ran the company into bankrupcy why do they

deserve bonuses... and why would they want to retain them. What a stupid system.

[doc03]

11. My company went through two bankruptcies, management

got all the raises they asked for and nice Golden Parachutes, we took concessions and lost our pensions twice. The Judge was a Reagan appointee.

[Populist_Prole]

16. Same exact thing happened where I work. Twice as well.

[catrose]

12. EXCUSE ME?

Every Borders in our town has closed, including the one that used to have the 2nd highest sales in the country. The company is in the toilet, and the executives get BONUSES?

I'd think that every executive that left would be a blessing for the company. Who do they think does the work anyway?

[harmonicon]

13. why should they want to keep them?

I'm sure there are plenty of people they could hire for a hell of a lot less money who would do a much better job.

[neverforget]

14. Even when they fail, they succeed.

[toska]

15. Torn on this one

Normally I think these bonuses are a bad idea. The executives who sank Borders were the ones who ignore Amazon in the beginning. Decided that they didn't need a website that could compete. Then the next set decided to sell out the employees and sell the website to Amazon. In the 10 years I was there, every single executive (and they changed over quite often) dug the hole a little deeper. Deciding to give shelf decisions to publishers and cutting the selection down didn't help either. You could find the same stuff at Walmart for cheaper.

I hate what CEO's have done to these companies and their golden parachutes reward them. I don't know what the current executives are like at Borders, I got screwed over one time to many and left for greener pastures. If they can save the company it would be a miracle.

A friend who is still there said the creditors argued in court for the bonuses. In my opinion the company is finished and has been for several years. They failed to compete online and have watched Amazon take out the book market and Apple take out the music and video. If they could possibly save the company maybe they deserve the bonuses, but the employees who are still there deserve it more. I'm so thankful I'm not one of those trying to do the job of three or four while wondering if I'm next.

[McCamy Taylor]

17. I am single minded in my disgust. They are not paying employees wages

but they are paying exec bonuses? What pigs!

[JDPriestly]

22. Borders could have succeeded if it had responded to social change

and copied a bit of what Powell's in Portland, Ore. does. Powell's places used books on the shelf with new ones. It offers older books as well as the latest. Its stores are enormous.

Borders tried too hard to appeal to upscale clients. People who read a lot often don't have a lot of money. The folks who read a lot tend to be academics, teachers, people who earn modest salaries. Borders was a place to shop at Christmas and forget the rest of the year.

[DeSwiss]

18. K&R

[Akoto]

19. It's a shame. My local Borders is among those closing ...

I am bummed about it. For a long time, it has been the only bookstore around here to carry the particular books I like.

They've been having a sale since the announcement in order to clear out remaining stock. Two of the older ladies there have been with that store for many years, and they told us that they're getting not a penny because it's a bankruptcy. The cashier said they didn't even know about the closing until they heard about it on the news!

[JDPriestly]

21. Borders is paying that kind of money to retain executives that ran its

business into the ground and put the shareholders into Bankruptcy Court.

That is ridiculous. Chapter 11 of the US Code which governs bankruptcies for businesses needs to be amended to end abuses like this. Either the company is bankrupt and its creditors are to be paid from its assets or it is not bankrupt and it should be in the Bankruptcy Court.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapter_11,_Title_11,_United_States_Code

[eomer]

23. Hah, I started a personal boycott of Borders due to the RW crap they always put on the front table.

It's the table you see right after you walk into the store. When I complained the manager on duty told me they are told what to put there by the regional managers and it is based on their being paid for the placement.

I drove across town to shop instead at a Barnes and Noble, which didn't have any such crap on their respective displays.

[rasputin1952]

24. So, bankrupt a company, and get a bonus for doing so...Capitalism

at it's absolute worst.

Makes me wonder what kind of shit shareholders have for brains, much less the court system that oversaw this.

[fasttense]

27. I think capitalism is a predator form of economics but this is NOT capitalism.

Capitalism does NOT reward the people who destroy a business.

This is more like Soviet style communism ... perhaps feudalism is a more apt description. It's like Soviet communism in that the party members are the only ones allowed to live in luxury. The party members made up of a handful of powerful oligarchs are never held accountable. No matter how badly they run an enterprise, they are never fired, just move on to other areas that they will destroy by their mismanagement.

But really feudalism describes it best. If you are born into wealth like Donald Trump or George W. bush, you are afforded special privileges and protections that ordinary peasant don't get. You are protected from your own incompetence and are never subjected to the laws of the country. You can destroy, corrupt and perform out right illegal activity but are never investigated, never allowed to fail, never suffer the repercussions of your own idiocy.

Ayn Rand, who thought a serial killer who dismembered a 12 year old girl was the epitome of the perfect man, would have loved this.

[Joe Bacon]

28. What could be more American?

American corporate executives are amazing, the more they run a company into the ground and fail, the bigger the bonus checks they get!

Meanwhile, if this happened in Japan, the executives would take responsibility and resign...

Goes to show just how morally bankrupt Ayn Rand's America has become!

[Odin2005]

29. Bonus-ing their way out of business. Idiots.

[Name removed]

30. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Skink]

31. Actually this is what was supposed to happen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/business/economy/05simmons.html