We've come a long way from the days when U.S. CEOs got $6,000 shower curtains and shareholders picked up the tab, right? How about almost $6-million (U.S.) on tickets to basketball games?
Our friends at Footnoted.com have sifted through the 2011 U.S. proxy filings and come up with their favourite disclosures on executive perks. Among them:
- Barry Diller, chairman and "senior executive" at IAC/InterActive Corp. and Expedia Inc. racked up $1.25-million worth of "personal flights" on company aircraft.
- Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. paid $1.95-million to Martha Stewart's MS Real Estate Management Company for filming one of her shows at one of her properties.
- Amazon.com spent $1.6-million on CEO Jeff Bezos' personal security. The company points out that the expense is "especially reasonable" since Mr. Bezos is paid only $81,840 a year.
- And especially reasonable when compared to the $2.54-million spent on security services for Sheldon Adelson, chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands.
- Chesapeake Energy Corp. spent $250,000 in "personal accounting support" for CEO Aubrey McClendon and $5.9-million on tickets for the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team. Mr. McClendon holds a 19 per cent stake in the sports franchise.
- Tyco International , known in 2002 for then-CEO Dennis Kozlowski's