In the Hunt

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Dear Peter Huntsman,

Congratulations on that fat bonus check the board of your eponymously named company decided to award you. I’m sure that $600,000 will mighty nice sitting aside the$1.5 million or so in take home pay you earned last year.

All in all, it’s not a bad outlay for an executive of a company whose revenues have fallen three years running. Indeed, after scoring a cool $632 million (and $1.1 billion in financing) as a walkaway fee after the attempted Hexion takeover went sour, maybe that would be a better business model for you. Maybe it would make up for any lost revenue from sales to Iran. It’s especially gratifying, I’m sure, after certain media reports held that none of this might have come about had the one-time object of your affection had the good sense to pony up for better lawyers.

Care if I make a humble suggestion or two for what you might do with this unexpected windfall? Take a couple hundred thousand and put it in an account for the expenses of the 1,200 or so employees Huntsman let go last year. Set aside a few extra bucks for Sam Scruggs, your former general counsel who, oddly enough, “resigned” on Dec. 28. (Talk about bad timing.) But don’t bother renewing those opera tickets, because apparently you are tone deaf.

Your friend,

Mike

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About Mike

Mike Buetow is president of the Printed Circuit Engineering Association (pcea.net). He previously was editor-in-chief of Circuits Assembly magazine, the leading publication for electronics manufacturing, and PCD&F, the leading publication for printed circuit design and fabrication. He spent 21 years as vice president and editorial director of UP Media Group, for which he oversaw all editorial and production aspects. He has more than 30 years' experience in the electronics industry, including six years at IPC, an electronics trade association, at which he was a technical projects manager and communications director. He has also held editorial positions at SMT Magazine, community newspapers and in book publishing. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois. Follow Mike on Twitter: @mikebuetow

5 thoughts on “In the Hunt”

  2. Who the heck is Peter Huntsman?
    (and why should we care about him in particular, knowing that ALL the fatcats skim as much as they can get away with?)
    Anything related to circuit boards?

  3. @Jack: he’s the head of Huntsman, a major supplier of solder masks and conformal coatings (Huntsman bought the former Ciba and Vantico businesses).

  4. PCB Update reports Huntsman’s fourth-quarter profit fell 89% to $66 million on a 2% gain in revenue.

    Huntsman Corp. said Friday its fourth-quarter profit fell to $66 million, or 26 cents a share, from $598 million, or $2.63 a share, in the year-ago period. On an adjusted basis, the Woodlands, Texas chemical company said it earned 27 cents a share. Three analysts polled by FactSet Research were looking for a loss of 14 cents a share, on average. Revenue rose 2% to $2 billion, in line with the Wall Street consensus. Shares of Huntsman closed Thursday at $12.37.

    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/huntsman-posts-a-smaller-fourth-quarter-profit-2010-02-19?siteid=yhoof2

  5. @Mike Lynn: Which is great, but doesn’t explain why a chief executive should get a $600,000 bonus for work his lawyers did.

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