Oh, that $15 million loan? Don't worry about it So Microsoft's Board of Directors loans their then-President $15 million against the value of options that he evidently just couldn't wait to mature. The options, as options do, ended up "underwater" when the company's stock price dipped. So poor Rick Belluzzo still owed the company $15 million even though, goshdarnit, his 3.5 million stock options hadn't made him rich. Well, as a company President and COO, he should be immune to market forces, shouldn't he? That crap is for the ham-and-eggers, the regular employees, not the executives. Those options were given to him in order to make him rich. He didn't want to wait to be rich, so he took out a loan against the value of the options compared to the stock price at their issuance. Now, even though his brilliant leadership was unable to prevent the stock price from going down, and those options aren't worth anywhere near $15 million, he's supposed to repay the loan? I think the only fair thing for Microsoft to do was to forgive the loan. After all, if Belluzzo were a regular employee and borrowed $15 million, or maybe a few thousand to pay for a year of college or make a down payment on a house (I'm sure Microsoft loans money to its non-executive employees all the time), I'm sure Microsoft wouldn't expect that money to be repaid. Excellent work. Kudos to Microsoft's Board of Directors.
Kagy-- Patience my good man. $15M is not a small sum of money. This exec will have to answer to the shareholders. If the shareholders don't want to do anything about it, then that is their business. I know...he is a shareholder. But ANY shareholder can hold his feet to the fire. I'll bet he comes up with the money sooner or later.
