May 15, 2001

8:40 PM

Who said execs have it rough?...Poor George Shaheen, former CEO of Webvan. His company expanded in to more markets than necessary, gobbled up HomeGrocer (I loved their commercials and catchy theme song - "Would you like to have something to eat") then spit Dallas and Atlanta out.

Here are sweet details of the deal Shaheen negotiated after stepping down last month. Under the terms of his retirement package, Shaheen will receive 50 percent of his base salary and target bonus for the rest of his life.

All to the tune of $375,000 a year for life.

Sob,
I wonder if Shaheen is Irish. Just curious.
posted by lheiskell (10 comments total)

where's the $375k coming from if Webvan only has enough money to operate through the end of the year?
posted by neuroshred at 9:04 PM on May 15, 2001

"For life" is the life of the company.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:11 PM on May 15, 2001

Personally, I would still like to see CEOs get paid in agony. If they booted by the board, I want to see the CEO in question lose a digit. If they get terminated due to shareholder action, I want to see he/she lose a limb. If the company goes bankrupt, and it was not losing money prior to the tenure of the CEO in question, then that CEO gets to pick which loved one dies.

After all, there's no greater motivational tool than stark terror. Oh sure, you'll say "but nobody would want to be CEO!". Liar. You know damn well there'll still be plenty of 'em.

Then again, I'm bitter and hateful.
posted by aramaic at 10:04 PM on May 15, 2001

Then again, I'm bitter and hateful.

No shit!
posted by kindall at 10:08 PM on May 15, 2001

aramaic: correct format is s/he, not he/she. Just trying to speed up your time to typing vs. productivity ratio.

Oh yeah - people who advocate gender-neutral language are all about this stuff.
posted by acridrabbit at 10:46 PM on May 15, 2001

Bah, webvan. They took away the beloved homegrocer Peach! If you're an ex-homegrocer fan and interested in all of that behind-the-scenes stuff, check out the two part series (one - two - and timeline) on Homegrocer that recently appeared in the Seattle Times.
posted by gluechunk at 10:56 PM on May 15, 2001

You think that was bitter and hateful? *pffthtpt!*

Here's the way the world should turn: insist everything's owned by sole proprietorship or partnership. The absurd notion that a corporation can be a separate entity without a soul is what's killing capitalism. Make people personally responsible for their actions in the marketplace. You'll suddenly have a less daring, more polite marketplace, and less people will be able to hide questionable or even illegal activities behind a corporate mask. No more board of directors passing the buck. Accountability.

Kill corporations.
posted by ZachsMind at 11:39 PM on May 15, 2001

The absurd notion that a corporation can be a separate entity without a soul is what's killing capitalism.

Well, people are separate entities without souls, so what would really be different if you got replaced corps with sole props or partnerships?
posted by kindall at 10:50 AM on May 16, 2001

I wonder if Shaheen is Irish. Just curious.

Why the hell would he be Irish?
posted by tomcosgrave at 11:30 AM on May 16, 2001

"The luck of the..." is one of those sayings that doesn't really go down well in Ireland, given the millennium of shit they've been dealt.
posted by holgate at 2:39 PM on May 16, 2001