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StumbleMGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren paid $13.75 million in 2009
Wednesday, April 21, 2010 | 4:49 p.m.
Jim Murren
MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren got a $13.75 million pay package in 2009, his first full year as the casino operator's top executive, according to an Associated Press analysis of a regulatory filing the company made late Tuesday.
Murren last year made about 3.7 times what he did in 2008, when he spent the first 11 months as MGM Mirage's chief operating officer.
Murren's 2009 pay included $2 million in salary, a $500,000 bonus, a $3.5 million performance-based cash bonus and $664,000 in perks.
The perks were mostly travel-related, including $265,783 for Murren's personal use of a company aircraft, as well as $136,000 for insurance premiums and benefits and funds for an attorney to help him negotiate his employment contract.
Murren received stock options worth $7.09 million when they were granted.
MGM Mirage shares rose 9 cents to $15.09 on Wednesday, when the company announced it would ask bondholders to approve a name change to MGM Resorts International.
Shares of MGM Mirage dropped during 2009 from $15.44 to $9.12, on Dec. 31.
Murren owned 2.5 million shares in the company as of April 1, the company said, less than 1 percent of the company.
MGM Mirage's largest stockholder is billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, who owns 37 percent of its stock _ 163 million shares. Kerkorian lost his majority stake in the company in May last year when MGM Mirage issued new stock and he did not buy enough to maintain his 53.8 percent stake.
Another major shareholder is a subsidiary of Dubai World, MGM Mirage's joint venture partner in the $8.5 billion CityCenter complex on the Las Vegas Strip, which owns nearly 29 million shares of MGM Mirage stock _ 6.56 percent.
MGM Mirage worked last year to keep customers at its casinos and on the development and opening of CityCenter. The complex, which includes luxury resorts, restaurants, shopping, entertainment and a casino, has been touted by Murren and other company executives as the future for the company and Las Vegas.
But the company said last week that its preliminary estimates show it lost $96.7 million during the first quarter, partly because the value of CityCenter's residential units was dropping, the second writedown it's taken on the project.
MGM Mirage lost $1.29 billion, or $3.41 per share, in 2009.
The Associated Press formula is designed to isolate the value the company's board placed on the executive's total compensation package during the last fiscal year. It includes salary, bonus, performance-related bonuses, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year. The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, making the AP total different in most cases than the total reported by companies to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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WOW!!! That's serious coin. It sure pays to lose big bucks. Hats off!
that is awesome. i love the smell of capitalism...it smells like...victory.
Talk about throwing money away.
I went to City Centre and Aria was almost empty. I went to Rio and several others and they were full of people (El Cortez had more gamblers).
The big pay should outrage shareholders since stock is in the mid teens-down from $90 a share a couple of years ago.
Better get it while he can, before Obama's "Pay Czar" takes it all away from him!
Oh yes, modern capitalism and the "free market."
It's funny to hear the pseudo-patriot types go on about the "free market" - like "free market" is somehow synonymous with democracy. The right wing champions of "personal responsibility" have no problem with multi millionaires forming corporations simply to AVOID ANY personal responsibility. No hypocrisy there.
The conservatives squawk about competition being the key to life, and don't you know it, when you go to work for, or with, any of these corporations the first thing they want you to do is sign a NON COMPETE agreement. No hypocrisy there.
Obscene paychecks like the one above are for some reason looked at (by right wingers) as the bedrock of our country, but if labor DARED ask for a slice of that, they would immediately be branded as lazy communists. Greed by CEOs is good, perceived greed by workers is bad. No hypocrisy there.
These titans of industry (read: robber barons)are idolized by the ignorant as great Americans, but the truth is that People like Jim Murren don't have any loyalty to this country or it's people. By LAW these CEO's are required to look to the bottom line and share holders stock before ANYTHING else - be that patriotism, God, their own workers, the public, this country, or the environment.
Great Americans indeed.
Must be nice. $250k a week . MGM is losing how much money???
"first thing they want you to do is sign a NON COMPETE agreement"
hey, jethro...
that's to keep you from stealing trade secrets and insider knowledge and going out and starting your own company with THEIR hard work and innovation.
if you owned coca cola, and that secret formula kept thousands of people employed...and if someone was to steal that formula and all those people would lose their jobs, you would want people to sign a non compete as well.
you sound like a bitter liberal, so i don't think you have the motivation to ever start a business, so why do YOU care if they make you sign a non compete.
At some point there has to be accountability. Several CEO's on wall street agreed to "no pay" or minimal pay until they can turn the company around. Grant Jim stock options in lieu of a huge paycheck. This way if the company succeeds, so does he. His picture looks like it should be in a frame sold at CVS.
No steve, that is a NON-DISCLOSURE agreement. A NON-COMPETE agreement is completely different.
Funny how you're all for regulation when it regulates labor and competition.
Meanwhile, Aria blackjack pit is deserted most of the time because of ridiculous minimums, 6/5 sucker blackjack, continuous shufflers, etc. Let's not forget the "snack bar" next to the poker room where an average deli sandwich with a bottled water will set you back $20.
One nice thing about Aria (compared to the El Cortez): There are no bum fights, crack heads, or $20 hoes wandering around the area.
Great job Mr. Murren. Aria is beautiful, there are no low lifes hanging around the place, and the blackjack pit looks like a library on Sunday.
Well deserved!!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA THATS ALL HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
steviem weighs in with this gem:
"that is awesome. i love the smell of capitalism...it smells like...victory."
Get a good whiff, stevie.
That's the closest you will ever come to 13.75 million dollars.
Your statement is utter nonsense.
Shareholder value at it's best. He's been a disaster since assuming the position...or I guess the shareholders assumed the position with this company!
Well I always thought rock musicians were worth their money for what I got out of it. Stevem obviously gets the same kick out of C.E.O's. Well it takes all sorts,doesn't it?
Leave it to gmag to sit in the wings and then pop in to make an irrelevant statement on a pro-business comment. What does your comment to steviem have to do with anything. You say his is utter nonsense. Well then I ask what does that make your comment, because it's even worse than his. Why did you feel compelled to do that. You just wait for people to make a non-liberal statement and then you come out of nowhere to make your inane comments. Go back to your hole gmag, while you wait for more Harry Reid propaganda to comment on. You're so anti-business, is it because Walmart treated you poorly when you worked there? Or was it McDonald's?
unlike liberals, just because i don't make that much money, doesn't mean i hate those that do.
and your comment toward me doesn't make any sense. did i SAY i made that much money? no.
i think YOUR comment is more nonsense than mine.
"No steve, that is a NON-DISCLOSURE agreement. A NON-COMPETE agreement is completely different."
ok, mr. mba...please educate me on how i was wrong. funny how you say i am wrong...but then don't have the facts or the stones to back it up.
Sorry jke1717 but I got to agree with gmag. Applauding such a payout,for exactly what? Isn't capitalism about turning a cent into a dollar and getting the just rewards for it? Well you applaud the very opposite and while you are at it send a grand to Jimmy Swaggart a grand. He will save your soul.
I'm not endorsing his payout, I was making a statement about gmag and her poaching on anything that resembles a capitalist remark. I'm not a huge fan of big businesses and big salaries/bonuses. One thing that has happened for the MGM is that, like a lot of other companies (and people), they have too much debt. One thing that Murren and his group has been able to do is restructure all of that debt to become manageable. They are selling bonds and their stock will climb. I really don't see it getting to $90 again but they will survive. Which is exactly what you expect from a CEO. Figure out a long-term strategy to help the company survive. The last two years have been horrible for everyone. Frankly, I'm not a huge fan of the large corporations, I believe capitalism at its core is small business where you literally turn a cent into a dollar and get just rewards. Having said that, we as a community NEED MGM to do well, or this city will truly go bust. I for one, and hopefully even gmag, don't wish that upon our home town. Although gmag probably will hope for a federal bailout in that case. And btw Jimmy Swaggart will never see a dime from me.
SHAME ON YOU Mr. Murren!!!! Thats obscene. But after all he used to work on Wall Street so he is used to being paid way more than he is worth.
Compensation more often than not is based on the value of the employee contribution obviously this person is highly prized. Observing that it was the tireless efforts of countless negotiations public/private promotions and petitions spanning across many groups with and by a leader and his team that spared this company from collapse more than once.There is no doubt that it was hard earned and painful.It is the shareholders who determine compensation on merit and performance to all senior members on the board. Restructuring and offloading debt, labor of a mental source.The strain clearly visible to any whom care to look.I do not begrudge anyone that earns their wage. The amount is directly bound to the type and value of the labor. This task Herculean.
I think its great! The more he makes the more he drops and the more that trickles down to the rest of us!
Without these outragious salaries, trickle down will not work! We need more overpaid CEO's.
Now if we could just make the corporations hire dumber people as CEO so they would drop more of the dough to trickle down. The problem with trickle down is the smart people dont trickle... Only the dumb ones trickle.
The smart ones collect more.
Dang! I have a square head like that...can I have a job like his??
I could see if MGM was making a profit,but as of late they are not.
>>>>ThisOneGuy
Well said! But I would include plenty of rich liberals who are now torn between Obama-mania and Wall Street greed. CNBC is a perfect example...They represent the political and infomercial arm of Wall Street with a rabid hatred of Bush - but they loved his anything- goes capitalism.
How many Countrywide ads were run on CNBC? Thousands - as many as 20 per day.
It is also absurd, to see the wild-eyed-defenders of 'No Regulation' trying to convince us - as we crawl out of the smoldering wreckage of the TEAM AMERICA bus - that our FREE MARKET system must be free of any government regulation!
Enter scream of: "FREEEDUMB" !!! Yeeehaaaw!
@cinimongrl:
exactly.
@steve:
"please educate me on how i was wrong. funny how you say i am wrong...but then don't have the facts or the stones to back it up."
Well in case you really don't know, I'll cite wikipedia, if you need more information then I'd say you need to retain an attorney.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-disclos...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-compete...
See (as the name implies) one type of agreement (Non-disclosure) seeks to keep proprietary information and business strategies secret, the other tries to curb COMPETITION; hence the name "Non-Compete".
How 'bout them stones steve?
We can also spread some blame to our GCB and Comission...allowing MGM & Harrahs to own 80% of the strip basically making them "Too Big To Fail"
How the hell did they let that happen..price fixing runs rampant
Umm,the company of which you are the CEO lost over a >>Billion<< Dollars last year,yet you still earned $13 Million . Something does not sound right,there.
HAHAHA. This is funny. All that pay for all those losses. HAHAHA all the way to the bank.
Tommy Lasorda the longtime Dodgers manager said of his weight problem, "When we lose, I get depressed and overeat. When we win, I'm happy, and celebrate by overeating."
Upper-echelon corporate executives exhibit the same tendency. They get fat win or lose.
READ THIS CAREFULLY: "The complex, which includes luxury resorts, restaurants, shopping, entertainment and a casino, has been touted by Murren and other company executives as the future for the company and Las Vegas." THE FUTURE FOR THE COMPANY AND LAS VEGAS. Realllly? The future of Las Vegas? Do they mean City Center will save Vegas or that Vegas will go the way of City Center? I mentioned this before in the name change story, dropping Vegas references in their name, and some day they will drop MGM as well, means that to Murren and Company Vegas is just another player on the world stage. Nothing special. Nothing extraordinary. No personal ties. No reason to treat Las Vegas and the people who work there with any special regard.
And Murren receives an additional $3.5 million as a "performance based" cash bonus? You mean you get a check for doing what you were hired to do in the first place?
As Murren said in a taped interview which I believe I saw off the City Center web site, he and his wife wanted to bring the flavor of NY to Vegas. This was not based off any polls or demographics. He just was tired of "the same old thing" for Vegas hotels/casinos/shows (which as we all know worked in the past so I guess we have to fix what's not broken), and he had a sit down with Kirk and then he had his vision. (And I was born in Brooklyn, NY. If I want NY, there are things called cars, busses and planes.)
Murren's vision, no matter what you think of the architecture or where it is, is SO tied into foreign investment and influence, it's hard to imagine the "new" company going forward with less of a Vegas appeal and more of a foreign entity.
Also, the article states, "the company said last week that its preliminary estimates show it lost $96.7 million during the first quarter, partly because the value of CityCenter's residential units was dropping, the second writedown it's taken on the project." The SECOND writedown. And for this Murren gets an additional $3.5 million? No - for making ties with Pansy Ho.
I have a feeling this has a LOT more to do with Macau and the Chinese than City Center. He and other MGM people as well as Wynn and Sands, have all said, if it weren't for Macau right now everyone would have bitten off their finger nails.
And pacman720 mirrors my posted thoughts that letting 80% of the Strip go to two corporations is astoundingly short sighted - not just by the Gaming Commission - but by the State Legislature.
Suprise, suprise: I back up my arguments with facts and then clarify them when stevem cannot seem to grasp them and now he is MIA.
Nothing to say Steve?
Typical pseudo-patriot logic: shop your news, shop your arguments, rely on sound bytes and non sequitur. No thought out stances, just pick what ever side of an argument talk radio tells you to or seems "manly" at the moment, say whatever contradictory, illogical babble comes to mind and then go hide.
"a $500,000 bonus, a $3.5 million performance-based cash bonus"
Who is responsible for determining the CEO of MGM deserves a bonus? Surely he doesn't decide that himself...?
7 million of that salary is for stock options at a set strike price. If the stock tumbles, so does the value of those options. If the stock price increases, it could be worth double that. Regardless, that is all unseen monies as he, as the CEO, can't go around selling a million shares of MGM stock without the world knowing, and a perception that the company may be in trouble if the CEO is bailing. So ONLY $6 mil...and after taxes....oh lord we need to start a fundraiser for ol Jimmy.
@cinimingirl
Consider the monumental task of renegotiating the debt burden of not just one, but many casinos-- it is a deaf-(or in this case bankruptcy-) defying feat. This takes serious skill and experience. Jim stuck his neck out and felt personally responsible for each job to try to keep unemployment from rising. It isn't always about the bottom line, sometimes replacement cost is enormous and in this case, he probably could have asked for more and received it. Look at his model and aspire to it.-JB
This One Guy is right.
Why don't people see that we are rewarding the super wealthy for their hard work all the while blaming the union workers (who made the wealthy what they are, casinos and hotels do not run themselves) by not supporting the unions?
Support your unions, buy American.
Mr. Murren seems to be a financing genius and a gambling idiot. A single casino buried at the back of a 65-acre Little Manhattan, come on, Jim! Las Vegas is supposed to be all about gambling. What it's apparently all about now is sightseeing.
Just as an FYI, a non-compete agreement and a non-disclosure agreement can be one and the same depending on how it's worded. Non-disclosure/compete can be used for potential contractors so they don't go elsewhere or use confidential information. These agreements can also be used for employees, so they don't leave before the intended contract is over and usually involves a fee to recoup various costs should the employee decide to leave early.
I'm sure all the longtime employees who were absorbed during the Mandalay + MGM-Mirage merger who got let go last fall are certainly happy for Mr. Murren's pay package, since most of them were let go and only paid out what remaining vacation days they had....Having sat through a few townhall meetings where he spoke to employees and assured everyone of the great things to come and how they would be a part of history, I can honestly say this man has zero conscience and typical stockbroker morals.
It's why companies fail. Executive salaries aren't tied to company performance. If you can make $13M for those kinds of results then who cares about long-term health? I can see where his focus must lie...
Manic...I couldn't have said it better...corporate elite have been out of control for a decade or more...cannot believe that shareholders will continue to sit idly by...very sorry if you were one of the many who were harmed...
Where did they get the money?...Most of the casinos they own are empty