Finance & Business World

Viacom Inc.’s Philippe Dauman led the list of America’s top-paid CEOs in 2010 but his pay package for 2011 was nearly halved, mainly because he didn’t get stock bonuses for renewing his contract as he did a year ago.

Still, an Associated Press tally values Dauman’s pay package at $43 million, down from $84.5 million a year ago.

The figures were contained in a securities filing the media company filed Friday.

Another reason he won’t be the highest paid CEO last year: Apple Inc.’s Tim Cook was awarded a package valued at a whopping $378 million for replacing the late Steve Jobs at the helm.

Dauman’s base salary rose 33 percent to $3.5 million, but the bulk of his pay came in the form of a $20 million bonus for good performance, a 78 percent increase from a year ago. The company said operating profits came in above the mid-point of its target range and free cash flow generation was near the top of its range.

Dauman’s annual grant of stock awards was 68 percent smaller than a year ago at $13.3 million, and new stock options he was granted were valued at $6 million, down 79 percent from fiscal 2010.

He also received other compensation of $262,636, mainly for personal use of the company aircraft.

New York-based Viacom’s executive chairman and 88-year-old founder, Sumner Redstone, saw a 39 percent boost to his pay package to $21 million.

Redstone, who controls the company through a special class of voting shares, pulled down a base salary of $1.75 million, up a third from a year earlier, and a performance bonus up 78 percent at $10 million. New grants of stock and stock options came to about $8 million, the same as the previous year.

Redstone also benefited from a preferential executive pension plan that grew by about $1 million, with other compensation totaling $30,955 quick payday loan.

Over the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, Viacom’s widely traded Class B shares rose 7 percent to $38.74 from $36.19. The company said its total shareholder return in fiscal 2011, comprised of $417 million in dividends and $2.5 billion in share buybacks, was 8.7 percent, compared to 0.8 percent for the companies of the S&P 500 Index.

Viacom owns pay TV networks such as MTV, Nickelodeon and VH1 and the Paramount Pictures movie studio.

The Associated Press formula calculates an executive’s total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonuses, perks, above-market interest the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. The AP formula does not count changes in the present value of pension benefits. That makes the AP total slightly different in most cases from the total reported by companies to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The value that a company assigned to an executive’s stock and option awards for 2011 was the present value of what the company expected the awards to be worth to the executive over time. Companies use one of several formulas to calculate that value. However, the number is just an estimate, and what an executive ultimately receives will depend on the performance of the company’s stock in the years after the awards are granted. Most stock compensation programs require an executive to wait a specified amount of time to receive shares or exercise options

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If you take a trip outside Canada, it

The bottom line is that Germany is likely to be the last man standing. The Euro is important to them and the responsibility for saving it will be decided in Berlin - not Paris, Brussels, or Frankfurt. It will be messy and will involve revamping the main treaty - the Treaty of Lisbon cashadvance.

Cam Harvey provides an overview of some of the finer points. Click here for blog.

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J.M. Smucker Co. said Thursday its fiscal second-quarter net income fell 15 percent as the food maker’s ingredient costs increased.

The maker of Folger’s coffee, Jif peanut butter and its namesake spreads, like most of its food maker peers, has raised prices to offset soaring costs for ingredients. But companies face a tricky balance between covering costs and not alienating consumers with higher prices. Smucker’s total volume fell 1 percent during the quarter.

Meanwhile, the company’s cost for goods such as oil, flour, milk and peanuts rose 30 percent.

“We are effectively managing this period of significant cost inflation,” said CEO Richard Smucker in a statement. Raising prices on products helped the company grow revenue 18 percent.

Orville, Ohio-based J.M. Smucker earned $127.2 million, or $1.12 per share, from August through October. That compares with $149.7 million, or $1.25 per share, in the same quarter last year.

Excluding one-time items, net income totaled $1.29 per share. That fell short of analyst expectations of $1.39 per share, according to FactSet.

Revenue rose to $1.51 billion from $1.28 billion last year. Analysts expected $1.5 billion.

Shoppers bought more items such as Pillsbury baking mixes and Jif peanut butter, but sales of non-branded drinks, Crisco oils, Folgers coffee and Pillsbury flour fell.

Ingredient costs, particularly for green coffee and peanuts, are expected to remain high for the rest of the year, and the company plans further price increases through April, the end of its fiscal year

Coffee has been an increasing focus for J.M. Smucker. It announced in October that it was buying a chunk of Sara Lee Corp.’s North American coffee and tea foodservice operations for $350 million. The two companies also announced plans at the time for a long-term partnership to work on a new liquid coffee drink.

On Thursday, J.M. Smucker also lowered its full year guidance due to costs related to issuing $750 million in long-term debt in October.

It now expects earnings, excluding restructuring, merger and integration costs and other one-time items, to be $4.90 to $5, from a prior range of $5 to $5.15 per share. Analysts expect net income of $5.11 per share.

The news came as J.M. Smucker said it is recalling 3,000 16-ounce jars of its Smucker’s Natural Peanut Butter Chunky from stores in several states because of possible salmonella contamination.

Another 16,000 jars included in the recall never left warehouses.

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A town hall meeting with Ben Bernanke and a group of military families discussing family finances wouldn’t normally draw much notice.

But for this particular event, the Federal Reserve chairman is venturing into Texas. And those who watch the Fed say the visit sends a message to Bernanke’s critics: The Fed is independent and won’t be intimidated.

Three months ago, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is seeking the Republican presidential nod, had sent a veiled threat: Bernanke would be treated “ugly” in Texas if he continued to pursue ever-lower interest rates _ a policy that Perry and some other critics say is akin to recklessly printing money.

Now, Bernanke is visiting Texas for the first time since then, to a U.S. Army fort in El Paso.

His destination may not be coincidental.

“There has to be a political significance to this trip, given what presidential candidate Perry said about the Fed chairman and about how badly he would be treated in Texas,” said David Jones, head of consultant DMJ Advisors and the author of books on the central bank. “The Fed sees Texas as a good place to make a stand to assert the Fed’s independence.”

The Fed wouldn’t say whether the El Paso town hall meeting was planned before or after Perry made his remarks.

Fed officials say only that Fort Bliss was chosen because it has a successful financial literacy program that Bernanke wants to highlight. The town hall meeting is the latest in a series of public outreach efforts Bernanke has made, they say.

Over the past 2 1/2 years, Bernanke has attended a half-dozen informal gatherings in Kansas City, Atlanta, Cleveland and other cities. This week’s town hall meeting is his first in Texas.

David Wyss, an economist and former Fed staffer, said the site of Thursday’s event was likely influenced not just by Perry’s remarks but also by criticism from another Texan seeking the presidency: Rep. Ron Paul, a Republican congressman who favors abolishing the Fed.

“The fact that he is getting a lot of criticism from the two Texas candidates is a good reason to go to Texas,” Wyss said.

Perry’s remarks about Bernanke drew condemnation, including sharp retorts from former Vice President Dick Cheney, political adviser Karl Rove and other members of President George W. Bush’s administration.

Speaking in Iowa in August, Perry had said:

“If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don’t know what y’all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas.”

Perry added that the Fed chairman’s policymaking could be viewed as “treasonous.”

The Perry campaign declined Tuesday to discuss the governor’s previous remarks.

Bernanke, a Republican, served as Bush’s chief economist before being chosen in 2006 to lead the Fed. He hasn’t responded publicly to Perry’s remarks.

On Wednesday morning in Washington, Bernanke will make welcoming remarks at a Fed conference on small business and entrepreneurship.

Last week, Bernanke did address criticism from House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. In September, McConnell and Boehner were among four Republican leaders who signed a letter urging Bernanke to refrain from policies that they said could escalate inflation in the future.

When asked at a news conference last week if that letter had breached the Fed’s political independence, Bernanke was polite but firm.

“We listen to everyone’s input,” he said. “We are going to make our decisions based on what’s good for the economy, and we’re not going to take politics into account.”

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Tropical Storm Rina battered Mexico’s Caribbean coast and the island of Cozumel with winds and rain Friday, as the navy forcibly evacuated some residents who refused to leave a low-lying island north of the storm.

Rina was a far cry from the Category 3 hurricane that some had feared would hit the resort-studded region and many tourists abandoned Cancun and the Riviera Maya ahead of its arrival. The storm was expected to weaken further on Friday.

Playa de Carmen, a resort town across from Cozumel, was left without electricity and streets were largely empty as Rina swept the coast just 20 miles (30 kilometer) west of Cozumel with winds of about 60 mph (95 kph). The storm was moving north at about 7 mph (11 kph).

The Mexican Navy took mandatory evacuation orders so seriously that it sent boats to Holbox island, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of where the storm was expected to hit, to haul out by force about 80 residents who had refused to leave the island during an earlier evacuation of about 2,300 people.

At least eight cruise ships changed itineraries away from the storm’s path.

Lines snaked from ticket counters in Cancun’s crowded airport as airliners heading to Canada and Europe waited in pouring rain. State Tourism Director Juan Carlos Gonzalez Hernandez estimated 10,000 tourists had left by Wednesday night.

NASA cut short an undersea laboratory mission near Key Largo, Florida, bringing the crew back to land.

Schools were ordered closed in communities along the coast and on Cozumel in anticipation of the storm.

Ports also closed to navigation for recreational, fishing and small boats in the state of Quintana Roo, home to Cancun, and neighboring Yucatan state, while the island of Cozumel was closed to larger vessels, including the ferry that connects the island and Playa del Carmen.

But some decided to ride out the weakened Rina. Early Thursday in Playa del Carmen, tourists and residents strolled along the promenade and the beach Thursday under cloudy but not-yet-rainy weather. At the beach, lifeguards were placing red flags warning people not to swim.

“We would prefer to lie on the beach and get in the ocean, but right now all we can do is walk around and go shopping,” said Vera Kohler, a 27-year-old tourist from Frankfurt, Germany, who arrived Wednesday and planned to stay in the area until Sunday.

Domenico Cianni, a retired restaurateur from Vancouver, Canada, said he also prepared for a hurricane by buying extra food and beer and putting shutters on the windows of his rental home. But after hearing Rina had been downgraded to a tropical storm he decided to join tourists in Playa del Carmen’s pier.

“We were curious about what’s happening. We wanted to be part of the action,” Cianni said.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for the Caribbean coast from Punta Allen to San Felipe.

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The United Auto Workers union has called local leaders to Detroit on Tuesday, a strong sign that a contract deal with Ford Motor Co. is near.

Such a meeting normally means an agreement has been reached, and union bargainers brief local leaders on the details. UAW spokeswoman Michele Martin said Monday that although no deal has been finalized with the company, the union is hoping it will have one to present to the leaders.

“To get all those people here from across the country, people have to make travel arrangements,” Martin said. “I think they must have some hopeful anticipation to call the meeting.”

Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans would say only that bargaining continues and it’s progressing.

The four-year deal with Ford is expected to be sweeter than the contract approved by UAW employees at General Motors Co. last week. It’s likely to have profit sharing instead of annual wage increases for Ford’s 41,000 UAW members. It’s also expected to bring down Ford’s hourly labor costs, which are the highest in the U.S. auto industry.

Any deal must be approved by the membership, but that could be a problem because many expected the company to restore pay raises and other benefits they sacrificed to help Ford through tough financial times starting in 2007.

Talks between the union, Ford and GM have gone fairly smoothly this year, with Ford expected to settle more than a month ahead of the last contract reached in 2007 saving account pay day loan. Four years ago, Ford and the union didn’t reach agreement until Nov. 3.

Up next will be Chrysler, where the talks could be more contentious. The company isn’t making as much money as Ford and GM and probably can’t afford the same deals.

The UAW talks are watched closely because they set wages for more than 112,000 workers in the auto industry and set the bar for pay at auto parts makers and in other manufacturing industries.

The GM deal gives workers $5,000 signing bonuses, $1,000 a year for three years to cover inflation and at least $3,500 in profit-sharing this year. The worst GM workers can do is $11,500 over the four years of the contract. GM was able to avoid a pension increase for the first time since 1953, and Ford’s terms are expected to match that.

More than 1,900 entry-level workers at GM, who make about half the roughly $29 per hour paid to a GM factory worker, got raises of more than 20 percent. Ford has only about 70 entry-level workers, and will try to lower its labor costs by hiring more of them.

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TORONTO

WASHINGTON

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has withdrawn his slate of directors for consumer products company Clorox’s board, ending a proxy fight.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Icahn said he continues to think the best way to maximize shareholder value is through a sale of the company. He also said that he has concluded that most shareholders don’t support the idea.

Icahn, known for shaking up struggling companies, has proposed to either sell the company or buy it himself, which Clorox has dismissed as not credible. In August, Icahn said he wanted to install himself and 10 other directors on the company’s board. Clorox makes salad dressing, beauty and cleaning products and other consumer products.

Clorox shares fell $2.60, or 3.8 percent, to $66.80 in aftermarket trading.

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