Ex-AMD chief, Ruiz, lands himself $3 million bonus
AS A REWARD FOR splitting AMD in two, former CEO Hector Ruiz will pick up a hefty three million dollar bonus to go with his new $1.15 million salary as Chairman of The Foundry Co.
Not wanting to make a big deal of the gluttonous pat on the back payout, AMD decided that instead of a press release, it would bury the news in paper instead, sticking it into the firm’s regulatory filing on Friday. After all, what would people think of such excess after AMD had just clawed itself from financial ruin by pimping itself out to Arab oil sheiks?
The $3 million is just frosting on the cake for Ruiz, whose new two-year contract as non-voting chairman of The Foundry Co is rumoured to be worth somewhere in the region of $11.5 million with an annual salary of $1.15 million and potential extra annual bonus of up to 400 per cent of that base salary. Obviously Ruiz must think the credit crunch is a cereal bankers eat at breakfast.
AMD obviously feels that, despite Ruiz bringing the firm to the brink of bankruptcy, he deserves to be lavishly rewarded for helping put together a deal which separates AMD into a chip design firm – partly funded by Abu Dhabi-owned investment firm Mubadala – and The Foundry Co, a majority of whose shares are owned by another investment arm of the Abu Dhabi emirate ATIC.
The move to the "asset smart" model - separating the low-capital, high-margin chip design part of the company from the high-capital, low-margin manufacturing part - is seen by many as the only option AMD had in order to save itself from total financial ruin. The firm’s shares had been rapidly sinking since early 2007, from $20 a share to a weedy $3.81 at market close on Friday.
Of course, the bonus is conditional on Ruiz being able to clear the plethora of regulatory hurdles which still stand in the firms’ way, but those are not expected to pose any special difficulties. Ruiz can probably laugh all the way to the bank. In fact, in this economic climate, he can probably now buy the bank. µ
See Also
Arabian
Micro Devices explains itself
AMD
spin-off... good, bad or ugly?
L’Inq
The
Street
Share this:
ShareBusiness Intelligence Software
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Enterprise Accounting Software
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Enterprise Systems Management
This is how things work with big companies. Joe Schlub might lose his $10/hr job, and the Chairman gets $10 million in bonus money for getting rid of him.

It would be refreshing to see a company that limits the amount that management makes to something half-reasonable. Who *truly* needs to earn 11 million/year in SALARY?! Oh yeah, someone who's stock options are in the crapper because he's ruined the company to begin with.
When exec's start fleecing a company it means they know it's doomed and they take what they can while the taking is good. It's what the banks, SLs and governments do. The only surprise here is that it's AMD thats choking on it's heads. 

To bad stock holders don't vote on exec pay this kind of internal rape, he would be out the door and AMD would be a stronger company.
Money, money, money
Must be funny
In the rich mans world
Money, money, money
Always sunny
In the rich mans world
Aha-ahaaa
All the things I could do
If I had a little money
Its a rich mans world

Indeed.
Congratulations Mr.Hector Ruiz!
I Wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!!
So he gets a bonus after driving the company into the ground? Is this how things work in America? By rewarding bad management?
¡Nunca dejar que se dice que El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mierda es un rojo encabezados por hijastro!
DAMMIT ¡Maldita sea! Alguien obtener Fudo en la línea inmediatamente pronto...
"Obviously Ruiz must think the credit crunch is a cereal bankers eat at breakfast."

Congratulations Sylvie :-) :-) :-)

That's the best line I heard! Plus indeed, it seems that this crunch is a very tasty one for those who know how to prepare it.
That's a pretty big payout for the CEO of a money losing company that's executed pretty badly in the past 1+ year.

If anyone thinks he really deserves that much money, how many tens of millions does Otellini for being far more successful in his leadership of Intel?
If he leaves/is terminated earlier for "reasonable causes" (or some other legal jargon). He gets the 2 year salary and bonus.

So i guess unless Hector is caught surfing for porn on the internet, he will pretty much get 11Mil no matter what! 

Say what you will, but you gotta love the cajones!

Might as well just cut the check now and be done with him - AMD/foundry would be better off.
Guess what, Rich Evans, you are absolutely right. Just talk to anyone that works at ATI/AMD. Bloody slave-driving sweatshop. More layoffs so CEO get their raises! Less staff, even more work for existing staff! Existing staff become Exiting staff! Why, it's just one less "s"! Excellent stuff.
I call bastage !!!

/vomit
What the hell are you talking about?

As if you were in Ruiz's position you would decline the bonus??

Be all you can be! wanna give me 3 million more? uhm...gee...I dunno...maybe I would break down in tears, thinking about all the inhumanities caused to people world wide...

OR

Grins from ear to ear & laugh all the way to the bank.
An appropriately slimy exit for Hector Ruinz...
I assume the bonus and the $11 million salary is so he can run the Foundry Co. as well as he did AMD and Motorola. Both of which are in the crapper, and soon to be joined by the Foundry Co.
I sure hope that Dr. Ruiz has trouble sleeping at night. 

As he has asked us at AMD to walk our fellow coworkers out the door on more than one occasion because we can no longer maintain a staffing at the levels we currently are, I certainly cant believe that he is sucking down 3M in bonuses for a years worth of work. I ask you Hector - where are our bonuses? Why are you riding your golden parachute to another company that Im sure you will royally F. up.

Terrible. Hector should be ashamed of himself as well as the board.
Is this really what we call "freedom" ? This kind of elite's arrogance was the reason why we in eastern Europe have kicked communists out of power, hoping that your way is more just. Now I am in doubt.
All in all you can say whatever bad you want about AMD but Hector has been the guiding hand behind AMD since the 486dx2 80 days and all through tHE k6, k6-2, k6-3, and Athlon days. 

Hector has done a fabulous job until now catching and even passing Intel with the X2 CPU's

Obviously the ball got fumbled with the Phenoms and the finger pointing will go on for some time. 

But based on Hector's past performance I am willing to give him a break and see if he can rally the situation.