...computers serialusly
articles, and comments my ramblings related to the computer industry
Tuesday, March 5, 2002
idealab!...Ugly! As! It! Wants! To! Be! Yesterday, I bloged this story about 25 more plaintiffs joining the lawsuit against Idealab. closer reading gives us some details of the complaint against the leaders of this 'stinkubator' of dotbombs. According to the suit, the combined salaries and bonuses of Gross and Goodstein went from $440,000 to $1.4 million while Idealab racked up losses of more than $600 million from 2000 to 2002. Those figures do not include the value of the use of Idealab's corporate jet and life insurance premiums paid by the corporation, which added $47,000 to Gross' compensation and about $107,000 to Goodstein's, according to the suit. "The more money Idealab loses, the greater the benefits the defendants dole out to enrich themselves and ... the greater the compensation for Gross and Goodstein," the suit states.
The lawsuit also alleges that on a single day, March 15, 2000, soon after the $1 billion was invested by the shareholders, the defendants: -- spent more than $600 million in cash and gave away more than $250 million in Idealab preferred stock, investing in 26 speculative companies, including some in which the defendants personally owned stock. -- went on a personal "spending spree" with corporate money in which they ratified personal loans to eight Idealab executives totaling $35.7 million and granted themselves and others $46 million worth of stock options for $40 million. Months later, the suit alleges, the board members "took a number of actions to enrich themselves," including forgiving loans, retroactively awarding compensation, giving executives bonuses and increasing executives' salaries, among other things...mj
Yesterday, I bloged this story about 25 more plaintiffs joining the lawsuit against Idealab. closer reading gives us some details of the complaint against the leaders of this 'stinkubator' of dotbombs. According to the suit, the combined salaries and bonuses of Gross and Goodstein went from $440,000 to $1.4 million while Idealab racked up losses of more than $600 million from 2000 to 2002. Those figures do not include the value of the use of Idealab's corporate jet and life insurance premiums paid by the corporation, which added $47,000 to Gross' compensation and about $107,000 to Goodstein's, according to the suit. "The more money Idealab loses, the greater the benefits the defendants dole out to enrich themselves and ... the greater the compensation for Gross and Goodstein," the suit states. 
