Business Notes Compensation

Stockholder gripes about executive greed are beginning to make dents in the armor of some of the nation's top brass. A proxy statement revealed last week the first application of Westinghouse Electric's tough pay-for-performance system, which slashed the income of CEO Paul Lego and 13 other top officers by as much as 62%. With that response to the company's $1 billion loss on nearly $13 billion of sales last year, Westinghouse joins IBM, which cut the compensation of chairman John Akers and four of his colleagues by 40% and took smaller cuts from 60 other executives after Big Blue's first annual loss ever.

Despite a trend toward the curbing of executive bonuses, not all companies are marching in the same direction. At Paramount's annual meeting last week, one shareholder tried unsuccessfully to table a motion calling for 5.75 million shares of future stock options for executives. Chairman Marvin Davis claims creative businesses require such lures to hook and hold top talent. Stockholders registered resounding agreement: better than 90% of shares voted at the meeting approved the motion authorizing the Paramount perks.