LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“If you have a policy that is going on five, six, seven, eight years to 10 years, now it is not business cycles anymore.”
James Bullard, president of the St. Louis branch of the Federal Reserve Article, 1D
Acxiom CEO gets $786,382 in 1st year
Acxiom Corp. Chief Executive Officer and President Scott Howe earned $786,382 for his first year of the job, according to the company’s proxy released Friday. That includes a base salary of $409,231, along with all other compensation. He has not yet cashed in any of his 3.15 million stock or 2.17 million option awards.
Howe’s temporary living expenses of $56,164 also were included in his compensation. Company spokesman Wyatt Jefferies said Howe, who was hired last July, now has a home in Little Rock, where the data-management company is based.
The marketing services provider’s annual proxy statement also showed that the former chief financial officer and executive vice president, Christopher Wolf, received $333,333 in a retention package for fiscal year 2012. Acxiom’s fiscal year ended March 31.
Wolf entered into a retention agreement with Acxiom in May. He officially resigned June 1, 2011 but continued to consult for the company for a year for $33,333 a month.
John Adams, former chief operating officer and executive vice president, resigned Dec. 31. He will receive a severance package of $875,000 over the course of the year. At the end of the fiscal year, he had received $182,292.
Acxiom also announced its annual shareholders meeting will be held Aug. 16 at 8 a.m. at the company’s Little Rock headquarters. Acxiom stock on Friday gained $1.04, or 7.4 percent, to $15.11. It surpassed its 52-week high of $14.92.
JPMorgan exec gets millions on exit
JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s decision to let Chief Investment Officer Ina Drew retire four days after the bank disclosed a $2 billion loss in her division allowed her to walk away with about $21.5 million in stock and options.
Drew, who resigned May 14, can keep $17.1 million in unvested restricted shares and about $4.4 million in options that she otherwise would have been required to forfeit if the New York-based bank had terminated her employment “with cause,” according to regulatory filings and estimates from consulting firm Meridian Compensation Partners LLC.
A 30-year JPMorgan veteran, Drew also had accumulated 661,000 unrestricted shares of common stock worth about $23.7 million based on the May 14 closing price, $9.7 million in deferred compensation and $2.6 million in pension pay as of Dec.
31, according to company filings. Altogether, Drew’s stock, pension and deferred pay come to about $57.5 million.
Drew, 55, oversaw the London traders responsible for a reported $2 billion loss on credit derivatives that Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said “violated common sense.” The New York Times, citing unnamed sources, reported Thursday that the loss has grown to as much as $9 billion.
Weekly oil, gas rig count down by 7
HOUSTON - The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. is down by seven this week to 1,959.
Houston-based oil-field services company Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday that 1,421 rigs were exploring for oil and 534 for natural gas. Four were listed as miscellaneous. A year ago, Baker Hughes reported 1,886 rigs.
Of the major oil- and gas-producing states, Oklahoma gained 10 rigs, Colorado added two and Alaska and Wyoming each added one.
Texas lost nine rigs, North Dakota lost eight, Pennsylvania lost five and California lost one.
Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and West Virginia were unchanged.
The rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed out at 488 in 1999.
Pilots at Delta Air Lines OK contract
MINNEAPOLIS - Pilots at Delta Air Lines approved a new contract Friday that will prompt a major shift in the way Delta uses smaller jets.
Analysts say the deal is likely to become a benchmark for pilot talks at United Airlines, too, and will ripple through negotiations at other airlines.
The new contract will allow Delta to accelerate a shift toward bigger jets and away from smaller, money-losing 50-seat regional jets that connect passengers in smaller cities to Delta hubs. The shifts will happen over the next few years. In some cases Delta is expected to need to renegotiate airplane leases and agreements with the feeder airlines that it hires to fly under the Delta Connection name.
Fifty-seat jets have become money-losers because of higher fuel prices. Passengers generally prefer bigger jets, and Delta has long said it wants to reduce its use of 50-seat planes.
The new contract runs through the end of 2015.
BP settles claims of sex bias in hiring
WASHINGTON - Oil giant BP is paying $5.4 million to settle claims that some of its contractors refused to hire women to help clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says the agreement with BP Exploration & Production Inc. covers female workers in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
There has been no official finding that BP violated antidiscrimination laws during the 2010 oil spill, and the company denies that it committed any wrongdoing.
Under the settlement, BP will require its contractors to abide by equal-opportunity laws and designate an employee to monitor the terms of the agreement with the government. It also will work with other companies in the industry to make sure anti-discrimination laws are followed during emergencies.
Survey cites Iran for OPEC output dip
OPEC oil production fell from the highest level in more than three years in June as Iranian output dropped to a 20-year low with European sanctions set to take effect next week, a Bloomberg survey showed.
Production slipped 62,000 barrels, or 0.2 percent, to an average 31.558 million barrels a day this month from a revised 31.62 million in May, according to the survey of oil companies, producers and analysts. Output last month increased to the highest level since October 2008. The May production total was revised 25,000 barrels a day higher.
Output in Iran, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ second-biggest producer after Saudi Arabia, declined 65,000 barrels to 3.16 million barrels a day, the lowest level since June 1992. Sanctions aimed at stopping the Islamic republic’s nuclear program have curbed investment in infrastructure and hindered its ability to export crude oil.
The drop in output may accelerate next week after the European Union’s ban on the purchase, transport, financing and insurance of Iranian crude starts Sunday.
Saudi Arabia cut output by 70,000 barrels a day to 9.83 million this month.
Business, Pages 31 on 06/30/2012