CVS/Caremark CEO got $24m pay package in '06

April 5, 2007

CVS/Caremark Corp. said chief executive Thomas M. Ryan received total pay for 2006 valued at $24 million. His total pay includes options awards valued at $4 million, stock awards valued at $5.7 million, and nonequity incentive plan compensation of $8.2 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Woonsocket, R.I.-based drugstore operator said Ryan also realized $14.6 million in value from the exercise of options during 2006. (Dow Jones)

TJX Cos. said it entered into a settlement pact with former senior executive vice president Alexander W. Smith, ending a battle to bar him from becoming chief executive at Pier 1 Imports Inc. Framingham-based TJX, owner of the T.J. Maxx chain, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Pier 1 dismissed its lawsuit against the company. As part of the settlement, TJX said it will pay $175,000 to Smith and agrees that his noncompete covenant doesn't apply to his employment at Pier 1. (Dow Jones)

FedEx Corp., the world's largest air-cargo carrier, sought to thwart a Teamsters organizing drive by firing four workers who showed interest in the union, the National Labor Relations Board said in a complaint. FedEx also pressured delivery workers in Northborough to say whether they or colleagues supported the union and told workers the organizing effort in late 2005 and early 2006 would be futile, according to the complaint approved by Rosemary Pye, the labor board's regional director in Boston. The case centers on whether the workers are contractors, as Memphis-based FedEx maintains, or employees, as Pye decided in a separate ruling in September. FedEx has until April 13 to respond to the complaint, and a hearing is set for June 18 before an administrative law judge, Pye said. (Bloomberg)

Drug makers Genzyme Corp. and Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc. said they filed with the Food and Drug Administration for an expanded use of their Campath cancer drug. The companies hope to get added approval for use as a first-line treatment for B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a type of blood cancer. Currently, the drug is approved to treat the disease in patients that have been treated with an alkylating agent and have failed fludarabine therapy. (AP)

All residents of Maine would have to have health insurance by 2009 under a bill that Governor John Baldacci will introduce to the state Legislature in a week. The proposed law would also force regulatory changes in the state's insurance market to create more affordable coverage and would require employers to offer benefits to workers or pay into a fund to help them buy it, said Trish Riley, director of the governor's office of health policy and finance. The plan builds on Maine's four-year-old voluntary program that subsidizes coverage for lower-income residents. (Bloomberg)

Federated Department Stores Inc. chief executive Terry Lundgren received compensation in 2006 valued at about $16.3 million. Lundgren, also chairman and president, received a base salary of nearly $1.4 million. Federated reported about $2.7 million in compensation to Lundgren through the company's performance-incentive plan. The filing did not include a figure as a bonus. Lundgren received just over $243,000 of other compensation, which included $141,000 for aircraft travel, more than $48,000 in merchandise discounts, and $15,200 for financial counseling. He received stock or option awards valued at almost $12 million on the date they were awarded in March 2006. (Bloomberg)

THE WORLD

Eni SpA, Italy's largest energy company, won an OAO Yukos Oil Co. bankruptcy auction to gain a foothold in Russia after agreeing to share the assets with state-run OAO Gazprom. Eni and Italian utility Enel SpA bid $5.8 billion for 20 percent of Gazprom Neft and Siberian gas assets, beating Russian state oil company OAO Rosneft in an auction. Gazprom said it will exercise an option to buy control of the assets from Eni. (Bloomberg)