OT - Bankrupt Toys R Us wants to make sure Dave Brandon gets paid
http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/16/news/companies/toys-r-us-executive-bonu…
Toys "R" Us has asked the bankruptcy court for permission to pay $16 million in bonuses to its top executives if the company is able to hit some financial targets during the upcoming holiday shopping season. Among the 17 executives who would get payments is chairman and CEO David Brandon, who joined the company in 2015.
NASA really needs to look into Dave Brandon's ability to fall upwards. If we could harness that kind of energy we'd have a Mars colony up and running by the end of the week.
November 16th, 2017 at 2:46 PM ^
November 16th, 2017 at 1:47 PM ^
Once upon a time a talented group of people came together to dream, and to concoct and to scheme a golden parachute like no other. The Toys "R" Us Bankruptcy Plan is the culmination of the work of those gifted people who spent years tanking a company so the Brandon's could live...
Happily Ever After.
November 16th, 2017 at 2:10 PM ^
for keeping the apostrophe incorrect and staying true to that ass-hat and his over-the-top sign and house
November 16th, 2017 at 4:42 PM ^
November 16th, 2017 at 1:47 PM ^
Dave Brandon joining NASA would be good news for SpaceX and the Chinese space program.
November 16th, 2017 at 1:55 PM ^
It's almost like Lane Kiffin. Continually failing and getting rewarded for it.
November 16th, 2017 at 2:04 PM ^
He's got FAU at 7-3 right now and 6-0 in Conf USA. Maybe he found his niche. He was on the radio today talking about how much he likes living in Boca Raton, as his family also lives nearby. Maybe he stays for awhile and turns FAU into a G5 power.
November 16th, 2017 at 2:00 PM ^
I don't work in business so I don't understand why top level guys still can paid when they are running the business into the ground. Hey great job at killing this company...here's a pile of cash? WTF
November 16th, 2017 at 2:24 PM ^
November 16th, 2017 at 2:27 PM ^
The entire C-Level executive class, from the Fortune 100 on down, is one gigantic circle jerk.
VP or below? Here's a mop.
November 16th, 2017 at 2:53 PM ^
next tuesday level
November 16th, 2017 at 4:44 PM ^
Don't forget your squeegee—fluffing CEOs is a messy business for middle management.
November 16th, 2017 at 2:28 PM ^
what they deserve is a "golden shower" and thats it !!!
November 16th, 2017 at 3:03 PM ^
deserve that. I mean some people enjoy them. Or so I've heard.
November 16th, 2017 at 2:27 PM ^
Brandon didn't run into the ground. The company had little chance of survival when Brandon came on board.
If you don't allow these type of payments that no experienced executive would take on the challenge of trying to turn around such a company or steer it through bankruptcy so most companies would be doomed as soon as their balance sheets started to look slightly questionable.
November 16th, 2017 at 2:29 PM ^
those same "experienced executives" ran the company into the ground. They would be better off giving the job to Tom Hanks' character from Big.
Or even Tom Hanks himself.
November 16th, 2017 at 3:08 PM ^
really (or just) the executives. It was the 2005 LBO that put $5.2B in debt on Toys R Us. Interest is $400mm per year and the company paid its private equity and real estate owners almost $200mm in fees.
If it makes you feel any better the owners' investment has been wiped out.
November 16th, 2017 at 3:19 PM ^
Personally I think PE firms and LBO's will destroy the economy in the long term (30-50 years).
But that's a conversation for another time and place.
November 16th, 2017 at 5:05 PM ^
those firms. You can throw central banks and governments in too for creating way too much liquidity looking for a home.
November 16th, 2017 at 2:33 PM ^
The animosity towards Brandon - both here and in the U-M community at large - is deep, broad, and well-deserved, but blaming him for what's happening at Toys R Us is silly. The company's issues started long before DB was there. Also, it doesn't matter whether it is DB who's CEO or someone else - retention bonuses are standard in bankruptcy. Otherwise, why would anyone take the job or stay.
November 16th, 2017 at 2:39 PM ^
November 16th, 2017 at 2:49 PM ^
November 16th, 2017 at 3:00 PM ^
It's not just that people will leave, it's that if they do, the incoming people want to be assured they will be paid in full.
As for becoming an executive, it's difficult to answer. Some guys like Jim Skinner at McDonald's and Bill Gates at Microsoft never graduated college. Other guys have many advanced degrees, masters, and sometimes doctorates.
I can assure you that the skillset is not just acting confident.
November 16th, 2017 at 3:45 PM ^
I look at it as being similar to D1 coaching positions. There are a small number of open positions every year at schools of varing desirability, and there is a similarly small pool of candidates to fill them. A school can take a chance at hiring somone unproven as a head coach, hire someone who has experience but has failed in the past, or try to bring in someone who has demonstarted expierence and success.
Schools that have had success and prestige for a long time have a better chance of hiring a coach with demonstarted success and experience. The lower your school's success and prestige more risk you have to take in your hire.
Toys'R'Us was not in good shape when Brandon was hired, and they probably didn't have a lot of options of quality people who wanted to take over given the landscape and competition.
Further, it could also be that Bain is one of the main stakeholders in ToysRUS, and made a ton of money after they installed Brandon as CEO of Dominos. So that might have something to do with it too.
November 16th, 2017 at 9:59 PM ^
Yes, I not only used to believe that argument, I used to parrot it frequently to unhappy workers. They probably thought I was an idiot.
If the executive, or VP, Director, whatever, wants to leave, let them leave, because there will be any number of experienced workers who not only can do what they did, would probably do it better. After all, front line people are expected to do their jobs, be present at work, express devotion to the company's mission, know everything related to their jobs or be disciplined... and be grateful to have jobs. Why on earth would not executives be held to the same standard or preferably, a higher standard. No loyalty expected? Boggles the mind.
The system benefits empty suits.
November 16th, 2017 at 2:47 PM ^
November 16th, 2017 at 2:45 PM ^
I'll probably take heat for this but 1: It wasn't necessarily Dave Brandon who killed Toys R Us and 2: The top executives get paid because if there is no assurance that they will, they could leave and make the company's ability to turnaround more difficult because any potential other hire in their place won't have any assurance they will get paid.
Plus, a lot of this stuff gets negotiated well in advance, so if you sign a contract that says you will get paid x and you go into bankruptcy, I believe those wage claims have a high priority in bankruptcy proceedings (just like wages due to hourly employees).
November 16th, 2017 at 3:03 PM ^
the payroll of 30-40 entire stores there is your problem. You are doomed right then and there. It might take a few years but that pay makes no sense. Its not just that the employees are making 1/500th of the CEOs execs, its that the CEOs Execs pay will eventually put those employees out of a job. On their way to being unemployed upper and middle management witll come up with 50 differnet ways to cut the workers pay and benefits to keep the company alive. Its a cycle that happens over and over.
November 16th, 2017 at 3:36 PM ^
This has much more to do with retail changing than with Brandon's or anybody else's compensation. If you look at the highest paid execs and compared their wages to the lowest-paid employee in their company, Toys R Us looks mild. For example, Tom Rutledge at Charter made nearly 3200 times ($98 million) the salary of an installer ($30,000). Disney's Bob Iger gets $41mm/year and the lowest earners at the resorts are $10-12/hour.
November 17th, 2017 at 11:02 AM ^
This is not about pay. This is about bonuses.
November 16th, 2017 at 3:10 PM ^
November 16th, 2017 at 3:21 PM ^
I will say this about that - it is incredible really, the things that can suddenly be important, or alternatively, the things that can be inexplicably disregarded, when they are tied to someone's performance bonus, even if they are not tied to anything your particular unit in the company actually does. Indeed, you can tell what kind of a year it will be sometimes just from the things that certain levels of management begin to actively discuss in the, well, November-December timeframe.
November 16th, 2017 at 7:09 PM ^
November 16th, 2017 at 2:15 PM ^
Pretty much tells ya they are not gonna make it
November 16th, 2017 at 2:20 PM ^
Pay him if you must, just make sure he cannot come back to Ann Arbor.
November 16th, 2017 at 2:39 PM ^
November 16th, 2017 at 3:15 PM ^
Ann Coulter at #3?
November 16th, 2017 at 3:28 PM ^
the so called tough nerd, Rick Snyder?
November 16th, 2017 at 3:30 PM ^
Uh...if we're talking most hated, Ann might have more people who hate her than the Unabomber and DB combined and I mean that as apolitically as I can say it
November 16th, 2017 at 5:55 PM ^
November 16th, 2017 at 3:13 PM ^
November 16th, 2017 at 3:39 PM ^
H.H. Holmes
November 16th, 2017 at 2:38 PM ^
November 16th, 2017 at 2:58 PM ^
November 16th, 2017 at 3:09 PM ^
Brandon does this 3-4 more times and he'll be qualified to be POTUS.
November 16th, 2017 at 3:27 PM ^
I guess Dave Brandon is doing his best Charlie Weis impression, only at the corporate level.
November 16th, 2017 at 6:52 PM ^