The Less Wealthy CEO

2008年10月23日

Think the market has hammered your portfolio? Pity Warren Buffett -- he's lost $9.6 billion this year, in his own company alone.

The value of Mr. Buffett's equity in Berkshire Hathaway Inc. declined more than that of any other big-company chief executive, according to an analysis by Steven Hall & Partners, a compensation-consulting firm.

Other big declines: Oracle Corp.'s Larry Ellison, who lost $6.6 billion in value; Microsoft Corp.'s Steve Ballmer, down $4.8 billion; Amazon.com Inc.'s Jeff Bezos, $4.2 billion; and News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch, $3.9 billion. (News Corp. owns The Wall Street Journal.)

All told, chief executives at 175 of the U.S.'s biggest companies have seen the value of their equity in their own company decline by a cumulative $42.3 billion, or 28%, from the end of their most recent fiscal year through last week. The study didn't include other assets of the CEOs.

Most of the biggest losers are founders or co-founders of their companies, except Mr. Buffett, who bought a controlling stake in Berkshire in the 1960s when it was a declining textile company, and Mr. Ballmer, who has been at Microsoft since 1980. Founders have seen larger declines because they tend to have bigger stakes in their companies than nonfounders, said Steven Hall, co-founder and managing director of Steven Hall & Partners.

Still, nonfounder CEOs have lost a bigger proportion of their equity values -- a median of 49%, compared with 35% for founder CEOs. That is because nonfounder CEOs tend to have more stock options than founder CEOs, Mr. Hall said. Many stock options are now worthless.

Collectively, the equity held by the seven founder CEOs has lost $15.5 billion in value; the 168 nonfounder CEOs have lost $26.8 billion in value. The median share-price decline for all companies studied was 38% since the end of those companies' most recent fiscal years.

Despite the declines, chief executives still hold a lot of equity in their own companies -- a median of $2.8 billion for founder CEOs and $26.7 million for nonfounder CEOs. 'It's still a heck of a lot of money,' Mr. Hall says.

For Messrs. Buffett, Ellison, Ballmer, Bezos and Murdoch, the study measured the decline in the value of their equity from Dec. 31 through Oct. 17. All results include stock, exercisable and nonexercisable stock options, and unvested shares. The numbers are based on equity holdings disclosed in the companies' most recent proxy and may not reflect subsequent stock sales or awards.

The study included chief executives of U.S. companies in the most recent Fortune 200 list, published in May. It excluded those whose departure or pending departure was disclosed in a proxy.

It also excluded companies that have been acquired or stopped trading. That left out several high-profile financial-industry chief executives and ex-chiefs, including Bear Stearns Cos.' James Cayne, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s Richard Fuld, and Washington Mutual Inc.'s Kerry Killinger.

Mr. Buffett was unavailable for comment, a spokeswoman said. Messrs. Ellison, Ballmer, Bezos and Murdoch declined to comment through spokespeople.

Erin White

危机重创公司 老板身价大缩水

在为自己的投资遭受重创而痛心疾首吧？想想沃伦·巴菲特(Warren Buffett)──他今年单在自己的公司就损失了96亿美元。

身家缩水最严重的五位大老板

根据薪酬咨询公司Steven Hall & Partners的一项调查，巴菲特在伯克希尔哈撒韦公司(Berkshire Hathaway)的股票价值缩水比任何其他大公司的首席执行长们都要惨重。

其他遭受巨额损失的老板们还包括：甲骨文公司(Oracle Corp.)的艾利森(Larry Ellison)，股票价值缩水66亿美元；微软(Microsoft Corp.)的巴尔默(Steve Ballmer)，损失48亿美元；亚马逊(Amazon.com Inc.)的贝佐斯(Jeff Bezos)，损失42亿美元；还有新闻集团(News Corp.)的鲁珀特·默多克(Rupert Murdoch)，损失39亿美元。（新闻集团是《华尔街日报》的母公司。）

据调查数据，从上一财年末到上周，美国175家最大公司的首席执行长所持自己公司的股票价值下降了28%，总计缩水423亿美元。调查没有统计老板们的其他资产。

大多数损失最为惨重的老板都是自己公司的创始人或者创始人之一；巴菲特是个例外，他在上世纪六十年代买下了伯克希尔哈撒韦的控股权，当时该公司还是一家业绩不断下滑的纺织品公司。而巴尔默从1980年起就一直效力于微软。Steven Hall & Partners的联合创始人、董事总经理霍尔(Steven Hall)说，公司创始人损失得更多是因为他们比非创始人拥有更多自己公司的股份。

不过，非创始人首席执行官们的股票价值降幅更大，平均缩水了49%，而创始人老板们这一比例为35%。霍尔表示，这是因为非创始人老板一般比创始人老板拥有更多的股票期权。许多期权现在都已经一文不值。

总地算来，7位创始人老板的股票价值共缩水了155亿美元，而其余168位非创始人老板共损失了268亿美元。调查所涉及的公司股价平均较上一财年末下降了38%。

尽管身家缩水，但老板们依然拥有自己公司的大量股份──创始人老板平均拥有28亿美元股份，非创始人老板平均持有2,670万美元。霍尔说，那还是一大笔钱。

对巴菲特、艾利森、巴尔默、贝佐斯和默多克这几位大人物，调查计算了去年12月31日到今年10月17日他们的股票价值降幅。所有调查结果都包括了股票、可执行和不可执行股票期权以及未分配股票。调查是基于上述公司最近委托书所披露的持股数据计算的，可能没有反映随后的股票出售或授予交易。

调查涉及的老板们都来自《财富》(Fortune)杂志今年5月刊公布的最近一份全球200强名单里的美国公司。调查没有统计那些根据委托书披露已离职或即将离职的老板。

调查还没有统计那些已经被收购或摘牌的公司，因此没有统计几家金融服务巨头的老板和前老板；包括贝尔斯登(Bear Stearns Cos.)的詹姆士·凯恩(James Cayne)、雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.)的理查德·富尔德(Richard Fuld)以及Washington Mutual Inc.的克里-基林格(Kerry Killinger)。

巴菲特发言人表示，目前无法联系到他本人发表评论。艾利森、巴尔默、贝佐斯和默多克则通过发言人拒绝置评。

Erin White