Tempur Sealy Executives Receive $81 Million Award Valued at Zero

Tempur Sealy International Inc. used a rarely applied rule to make an $81 million stock award to five top executives without recording its value, reducing their reported compensation for last year.

The award will pay out if the mattress maker exceeds a financial target -- a feat the board calls "not probable" -- or if the executives are let go after an acquisition by a third party, according to a proxy statement filed on Monday. The board didn’t include the $81 million in the compensation table for executives, citing a rule that lets companies value equity awards based on the probability their performance criteria will be met.

By Anders Melin, @melinanders, March 23, 2016, Bloomberg Business

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UPDATE 1-Activist investors want new United Airlines chairman before shareholder vote

The two hedge funds that have launched a boardroom fight with United Continental Holdings Inc on Tuesday called on the airline to immediately appoint one of its two new board members as chairman, according to a regulatory filing.

The funds asked that either James Whitehurst, former chief operating officer of Delta Air Lines Inc, or Robert Milton, former CEO of Air Canada, be appointed chairman before shareholders vote on a slate of six other directors that the funds proposed two weeks ago, the filing said.

United has yet to announce the date of its annual meeting when new board members can be elected.

Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in Washington; Editing by Bernard Orr, Mar 23, 2016, Reuters

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With Board Member Who Won’t Leave, Valeant Is at Mercy of Bylaws

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.’s former chief financial officer and current board member Howard Schiller has been accused by the embattled drugmaker of misconduct, and yet the one thing the company can’t get him to do is quit.

Schiller’s unusual step of refusing to resign from the board, despite Valeant’s request that he do so, could lead to fractures among directors. Valeant’s bylaws specify that board members can be removed by a supermajority vote of other directors if he or she “ceases to be qualified to act as a director of the company.”

By: Cynthia Koons, @CynthiaLKoons and Carol Hymowitz, March 21, 2016, Bloomberg Business

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Major companies working to eliminate their gender pay gaps

On the heels of Internationals Women's Day, Salesforce, an American cloud computing company, announced its plan to combat gender pay differences in the company.

According to the Executive Vice President of Global Employee Success, Cindy Robbins, the company made an internal pay audit for 17,000 employees, spending about $3 million to make salary alterations for close to 6% of its workers. This major announcement was made in a blog post on Salesforce after the company extensively analyzed its employees' salary.

"Moving forward, Salesforce plans to monitor and review salaries on an ongoing basis — making equal pay a part of our company's DNA," Robbins said.

In addition to the company's plan to eliminate the pay gap, Salesforce will also establish training courses for the women in the company, which will help them become more qualified for advancement opportunities.

Mar 14th 2016 4:29PM, AOL.COM

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