Meg Whitman is taking a $1 annual salary for her position as HP CEO

Meg Whitman, Harvard MBA and the fourth wealthiest woman in the state of California with a net worth of $1.3 billion in 2010, might be taking a $1 salary, but she is getting more than enough compensation with stock options.

As reported by the LA Times:

Whitman was also awarded the option to buy nearly 2 million shares of HP stock, which if vested today would be worth nearly $45 million. As with many executive-level options packages, however, the shares won't vest immediately: Whitman won't be able to cash in at least 900,000 of them in until a year from now.

Warren Buffett's favorite bank, BAC, to start charging debit card fees

Bank Of America is about to slap bank customers with a $5 Debit Card Usage Fee.

Yahoo! Sports wages class warfare against NBA owners

Yahoo! Sports, trying to give its NBA reporters something to do and stay somewhat relevant, begins the political charged discussion with:

Think NBA owners are sweating out each day of the lockout? Maybe you should check the number of league bosses on the latest Forbes 400 list. A dozen NBA owners made the rankings of the richest people in America. With 30 teams in the conference, that means 42.8 percent of the owners are sitting pretty.

Joshua Harris has an impressive resume that includes a bachelor's degree from Penn’s Wharton School of Business and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. The 46-year-old is one of the youngest on our list and worth $1.45 billion.


http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/list/201109/nbas-richest-owners

Barry Diller hires Chelsea Clinton

Barry Diller, the UCLA drop-out and billionaire chairman of IAC/InterActive Corp., has just hired 31-year old grad student Chelsea Clinton for a board of directors seat with the global multimedia company.

Chelsea Clinton is the daughter of President Clinton and will be paid $50,000 for her work on the board.

Other board members include Michael Eisner, the embattled former head Mouse-man of Walt Disney, and Edgar Bronfman Jr., chairman of Warner Music Group.

Groupon discounts its revenue

From the NYT Deal Book column: Accounting Change Cuts Groupon’s Revenue



For example, in a version of the prospectus filed last month, Groupon
reported $1.52 billion in revenue for the first six months of the year.
In Friday’s filing, that number is now called net revenue and is $688
million. The original $1.52 billion figure is now counted as gross
billings.

Groupon’s accounting change is the inverse of what Google
did before its own public debut in 2004. The search giant initially
excluded cash that was shared with distribution partners in its revenue
figures. It later changed its revenue to include those payouts.

Bill Gates Wins in Phoenix (Again)

Bill Gates (not the billionaire) wins his Phoenix City Council spot again during the August 2011 election.


COUNCIL DISTRICT 3

Registered Voters 90,014
Voter Turnout 22.89%

Votes Percent
BILL S GATES 15,326 74.37%
STEVEN GROSS 5,281 25.63%
Write-In* 0 0.00%
Total 20,607 100.00%



http://www.phoenix.gov/election/results.html

Societe Generale gets a call from the Department of Justice

The Justice Department is investigating whether French bank Société Générale SA helped facilitate Texas financier R. Allen Stanford's $7 billion ponzi scheme and network.


Societe Generale SA is at $17.91, down 55% 2011 YTD.

Get rid of Jerry Yang and the rest of his Yahoo! cronies

Is it possible that there can be Two! Yahoo! idiots in the world??!!

The short answer is Yes!

We know of the first Yahoo! idiot. Non other than Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang.

Master.Destroyer.of.Yahoo!.Shareholder.Value.

He has done it several times, folks.

The second Yahooo! idiot is Daniel Loeb. Daniel is a hedge fund manager who apparently forgot to sell his Yahoo shares recently and still owns 5.15% of the dying web company.

"Get rid of Jerry Yang and the rest of his Yahoo! cronies" is essentially what Daniel announced to Yahoo!, the Wall Street Journal! and the World! this week!

Hedge.Fund.Drama.Queen.

Daniel wrote this week that " ... this Board's failures have destroyed value for all Yahoo stakeholders." And this guy manages money for other people.

Yahoo! stock (NASDAQ:YHOO) closed at $14.88 today.

Groupon Inc. canceled its roadshow

Groupon Inc. canceled its roadshow and is reevaluating its plans to go public in the face of stock market volatility.

David Lauren to wed Lauren Bush

Laura Bush, currently a handbag designer and philanthropist, plans to wed David Lauren, son of designer Ralph Lauren this Sunday in Colorado.

The mega-wedding event will take place at Ralph Lauren's exclusive Double RL Ranch in Telluride, Colorado.

Laura Bush, 27, will not be using the name Mrs. Lauren Lauren; rather Bush will go by Lauren Bush-Lauren.

Congratulations to all the Laurens!

Lions Gate no longer worth it for Carl Icahn

Icahn ends battle with Lions Gate, agrees to sell stake

Los Angeles Times

Activist investor Carl Icahn has agreed to sell all of his holdings in Lions Gate Entertainment, ending his bitter, three-year-long battle to take over the film and television studio and oust its management.

Warren Buffett tosses $5 billion into BAC

Warren Buffett, the bottom-feeding investor from Nebraska, is picking up shares of Bank of America just when major hedge fund managers are dumping shares with record losses. And, right on cue, the financial media is applauding his daring, wisdom and good looks.

Polo and David Lauren Discover the Internet Independently Without Help from Al Gore

Fast Company, the business magazine that has still not discovered what it wants to be after all this time and that continues to see circulation fall year after year; has fallen in love with Polo's David Lauren.

Naturally.

Polo [the "acquired" trademark of Ralph Lauren] continues to get on magazine covers with ease [regardless of any actual measurable successes]

Meanwhile, it is true that Fast Company has still not discovered itself after all these years.

Here is the central question that Fast Company editors have been toying with over the past 10-15 years: Should Fast Company be a) a Silicon Valley version of GQ? b) a hip-hop business rag? c) a contra-company indicator for hedge fund shorting d) [supply your own idea here].

Yeah, Fast Company has provided some really amazing winners on their covers over the recent months: Arnold Love Child Schwarzenegger, Matt Water Boy Damon, John Chambers and Cisco, Lance EverReady Armstrong, Barack Unemployment Rate Obama, Conan Where's My Ratings O'Brien, and far too many others to list.

David Lauren: who talked you into the "interview" and cover of ..... Fast ?? Company???

Carl Icahn Sets to White-Wash Clorox

By ANNIE GASPARRO

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn said Friday he intends to nominate 11 people, including himself, to replace Clorox Co.'s whole board at the company's next shareholder meeting.

The move, revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, further escalates the battle between the household-products company and the activist shareholder, who owns about a 9.4% stake between him and his affiliate entities.

"We believe that Mr. Icahn is nominating candidates solely to advance his own agenda," Clorox said Friday. "Clorox has an outstanding board of directors that has demonstrated its commitment to acting in the best interests of all Clorox stockholders."


WSJ Article

David Tepper out of BAC and WFC

David Tepper, billionaire hedge fund manager of Appaloosa Management LP; aka David "Balls to the Wall" Tepper; aka Mr. "Tepper School of Business" at Carnegie Mellon University, where he achieved his MBA has zeroed out his stock positions in Bank of America (BAC) and Wells Fargo (WFC) according to CNBC.