How KB Home CEO's pay went through the roof

La Times ^ | Dec 17, 2006 | Kathy M. Kristof and Annette Haddad

[jdm]

I don't care what they pay their CEO. It is up to the shareholders to decide what is appropriate.

That's just the thing. Many here who argue over his pay, would not have argued, had they taken part in the 2,000%+ return since Seinfeld was in its second season! :O)

Time to buy KBH:

Circa 1991

And...

Time to sell:

2006

Okay, maybe that was a "mean" analogy, but you get what I'm saying! :O)

[Moderate right-winger]

the fact that CEO salary remotely approaches this amount is indeed obscene and does not do justice to the disadvantaged in our society who work hard to enjoy even a decent lifestyle

[Roberts]

How nice that yet another leader of a public company treated the company as his personal cookie jar. Secret backdating of options is nothing but stealing from the company's shareholders.

[Roberts]

I don't object to a top executive making a mint if the company performs well. However, what this guy and others did went beyond that. The secretive backdating of stock options amounts to stealing from the shareholders.

[dakine]

That is funny...

[Proud_texan]

Really? I never felt the least bit cheated? How much stock did/do you own? I owned quite a bit and made a bucketload of money and am quite happy with everything that happened under Karatz.

You did opt to vote your proxy in every election, no? I did and made sure that I voted to allow the board everything they asked for. How did you vote?

[Moonman62]

Look, the KB Homes CEO didn't deliver that profit, Alan Greenspan did. When the economy is flooded with money, as happened after the dot-com bubble burst, banks have to do something with the cash. They basically gave away home loans to anybody with a buck-six-bits in his pocket. That caused a lot of new homes to be sold, and KB benefited. It was not a brilliant business plan, it was simply a lot of available cash.

How do you explain the real estate booms that happened concurrently in other parts of the world, some of which were bigger than here?

[Moonman62]

That chart indicates performance was due more to the real estate market than CEO performance.

[raybbr]

Never envy another Man's honest profit.

Nothing honest about it. He's stealing from the stockholders.

[IamConservative]

One way they generated the profits was by using contractors that hire illegals.

[bikerman]

The disadvantaged earned what they get just as the CEO did. They, the disadvantaged want more, work harder. the American way.

[freedomfiter2]

Hey, a top mgt guy is worth every penny if that's what makes the company tick. Especially if you can get a crew to build a house for 37 seconds woth of the CEO's pay.


Given that 4 other companies which are more profitable do better with a lower paid CEO, this company has been ripped off by a fraud. The fact that they were stupid enough to agree to it means they deserved to be.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

All of this stuff is about to resurface in a few months.