Goldman Sachs leader sees compensation balloon
NEW YORK – Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s total compensation rose by almost 50 percent to $19.9 million last year, boosted by the value of his stock awards.
The value of Blankfein’s stock awards more than doubled from $5.3 million to $11.3 million. Goldman’s stock rose 39 percent in 2013 as the bank’s profits climbed. The executive’s cash bonus also increased, climbing 11 percent to $6.3 million.
Blankfein has been chairman and CEO since 2006, and has spent more than 30 years at Goldman. His base salary remained unchanged at $2 million from a year earlier. The bank’s earnings rose about 9 percent last year as its investment banking revenues improved.
He also received $323,759 in other compensation, including $43,804 for a car and driver, according to a regulatory filing the bank made Friday.
Tech stocks drag week down
A slump in Internet and other technology stocks pulled the broader market lower Friday, as traders turned on the same companies they flocked to earlier this year. Google, Netflix and other pillars of the Internet economy took a beating.
It was a bad day in an otherwise decent week. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index ended the week slightly higher.
Tech stocks had soared over the past year, pushing the Nasdaq composite index up 28 percent, as traders piled into Internet and biotechnology companies. Netflix and Facebook, for instance, doubled in price over that time.
The Nasdaq index plunged 110.01 points, or 2.6 percent, to close at 4,127.73, its biggest one-day drop since February.
Cigarette factory to close
NEW YORK – Philip Morris International will end cigarette production at its factory in the Netherlands as Europeans break the smoking habit for both financial and health reasons.
The company said Friday that it has started talks with employee representatives on a proposal to end production at the factory in Bergen op Zoom. If production is ended, it could impact about 1,230 of the current 1,371 employees.
Philip Morris International Inc., based in New York, reports that in the last four years, cigarette volumes have weakened in Europe due to economic softness, illicit trade and consumers quitting or shifting to cheaper alternative products. The company said that volume recovery is highly unlikely.
Philip Morris Holland anticipates cigarette production at the factory will end by October.
Vote on Monopoly no token
No rent collection while in jail, double the dough for landing on Go and clean out Free Parking if your luck takes you there are among five made-up Monopoly rules Facebook fans voted in for future editions of the board game.
Several thousand people weighed in on “house rules” over 10 days of recent debate and a year after Hasbro Inc. added a cat token and retired the iron in a similar online stunt aimed at keeping the 79-year-old game fresh.
“Our goal is to stay current and deliver Monopoly in a way that they want to engage with it and that means sometimes being new and having modern takes on the brand,” said Jonathan Berkowitz, vice president of marketing.
To appease hardcore players not interested in new rules, the Pawtucket, R.I., company will put the winners into a special House Rules Edition to be released in the fall and add them to classic Monopoly’s game guide next year as unofficial.