"Last year, the company reported it lost $1 billion, its fourth straight year in the red."
Yeah, that is with a B, readers!
But the NEW GUY gets a $33 million dollar payout?
"New boss reaps huge reward; Elliot receives $33.5m from Boston Scientific" by Todd Wallack, Globe Staff | March 30, 2010
Boston Scientific Inc. gave its new top executive an unforgettable welcome gift.
The Natick medical device maker said it paid chief executive J. Raymond Elliott, who replaced former CEO James Tobin last summer, $33.5 million in total compensation last year, making him one of region’s highest-paid corporate leaders.
Elliott’s pay package includes a salary of more than $598,000 for six months, a $1.5 million signing bonus, nearly $608,000 in other incentive awards, and $29.4 million in stock awards and options that will vest over the next few years. He also received other benefits, including a $12,500 executive allowance, nearly $198,000 for personal use of the corporate jet, and more than $1 million in relocation expenses.
How much did you get from Obama to move, foreclosed-upon person?
"$1,500 in “relocation assistance....the lender’s assurance that they will not later be sued’’
Tobin, who retired last year after running the medical device company for about a decade, earned $13.7 million last year, roughly six times his pay level in 2007 and 2008.
If you can call it earned.
Though Tobin’s salary declined slightly to $910,000, he received a $1.5 million “career service award,’’ nearly $1 million in incentive awards, $7.5 million in stock options, and $2.2 million in severance. The disclosure, in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday, comes at a time when Boston Scientific has continued to struggle.
It is called LOOTING the SHIP before it SINKS!
The company was forced to halt sales of defibrillators March 15 after belatedly discovering it failed to ask regulators to sign off on major manufacturing changes. Both the Department of Justice and the SEC are investigating the recall, The Wall Street Journal reported last night on its website. In February, the company agreed to pay $1.7 billion to settle patent infringement charges from rival Johnson & Johnson.
And for years, the company has struggled with anemic sales growth. Last year, the company reported it lost $1 billion, its fourth straight year in the red. Sales rose 2 percent to $8.2 billion.
The company’s stock rose 16 percent in 2009, reflecting the broader stock market recovery. But shares have slipped 20 percent this year.
--more--"I wouldn't be investing in Boston Sci any time soon.
"Recalls put company in regulators’ crosshairs; Boston Scientific’s new missteps, safety concerns may make it an example" by Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | March 31, 2010
Stepped-up government scrutiny of Boston Scientific Corp. stems from heightened concern over medical safety and disappointment that the company made new missteps after resolving previous problems with the Food and Drug Administration, analysts said yesterday.
The Natick medical-device maker, which has been working to settle patent suits and federal investigations dating back years, recently was notified of fresh investigations begun by the Department of Justice and the Securities Exchange Commission....
Since arriving last summer, Boston Scientific’s new chief executive, Raymond Elliott, has moved aggressively to clean up lingering legal and regulatory issues while consolidating operations.
Is that why they gave him so much? Who wants to captain a sinking ship?
This month, the company said it plans to eliminate 1,000 to 1,300 jobs worldwide, including an unspecified number in Massachusetts.
Yeah, great, that will help.
In a regulatory filing last week, Boston Scientific disclosed that it paid Elliott about $33.5 million in total compensation for 2009, including a $598,000 salary for six months, a $1.5 million signing bonus, nearly $608,000 in other incentive awards, and $29.4 million in stock awards and options that will vest over the next few years.
How many jobs -- and LIVES -- could that have saved below him!?
Stay out of the lifeboat, right?
--more--"
"Recall will cost Boston Scientific sales" by Bloomberg News | April 2, 2010
--more--"
"Boston Scientific unit may pay $296m; Judge considers settlement, could offer changes" by Amy Forliti and Steve Karnowski, Associated Press | April 6, 2010
ST. PAUL — Boston Scientific Corp.’s Guidant LLC division pleaded guilty yesterday to two federal misdemeanor counts alleging it failed to properly disclose changes made to some implantable heart devices.
The deal calls for Guidant to pay more than $296 million, which federal prosecutors called the largest criminal penalty ever assessed against a medical device company. The agreement does not include probation or restitution to victims.
US District Judge Donovan Frank said he will decide within three weeks whether to reject the plea deal, accept it as written, or accept it with modifications. During yesterday’s hearing in St. Paul, Larry Knopf, vice president and secretary of Guidant, pleaded guilty on behalf of the company to two misdemeanor counts: submitting a false and misleading report to the Federal Drug Administration about one defibrillator model, and failing to notify regulators about a safety correction to another line of devices....
With a heart device?
--more--"
And about those JOBS and TAX BREAKS!
"Boston Scientific fails to add jobs; Lawmaker says firms should lose tax breaks if they miss targets" by Todd Wallack, Globe Staff | April 10, 2010
Boston Scientific Corp. has not created the 331 jobs it promised in return for millions of tax incentives to expand its Marlborough campus four years ago, state records show.
Rather, the medical device maker told Massachusetts officials that it had actually cut 100 jobs in Marlborough as of last summer. Statewide, the company has cut hundreds of jobs since it received the tax incentives. And Boston Scientific recently disclosed plans to eliminate as many as 1,300 jobs worldwide — raising the possibility that more could be lost in the area — though the company will not say where the reductions will be.
State Senator James Eldridge, Democrat of Acton, said Boston Scientific’s failure to fulfill its jobs promise highlights the need for stronger laws to make sure the state can reclaim tax money when companies don’t hold up their end of an agreement.
“You are dealing with public dollars,’’ Eldridge said. “If the state is giving companies public dollars to create jobs, and that promise is broken, then the state should have the power to take back the tax break.’’
A spokesman for Boston Scientific, Paul Donovan, said the company has no plans to return the subsidies. As of last summer, Boston Scientific said it had already saved $689,907 in local property taxes and nearly $2.4 million in state taxes.
THIEVES!!!
Massachusetts officials say there is usually little they can do when a company fails to meet its job commitments, other than to end its tax breaks early, which it has not done in the case of Boston Scientific....
That's why I don't want them getting the damn things in the first place -- and here they are cutting jobs and paying the new guy $33 million.
The latest job cuts come at a time when Boston Scientific has been trying to slash expenses.
The company has lost money for four straight years, including $1 billion last year alone, because of sluggish sales, costly litigation, and regulatory problems.
Still, (clink) Boston Scientific is hardly on the verge of failure.
What do you call losing money for four straight years and a billion in a year?
It had more than $8 billion in sales and $864 million in cash at the end of 2009.
How?
And it gave its new chief executive, J. Raymond Elliott, a pay package valued at $33 million last year, making him one of the country’s highest paid CEOs.
That's a sign of success to the Globe? A CEO looter?
Governor Deval Patrick recently signed legislation that will make it easier to force companies to repay the state in the future if they don’t fulfill their job commitments, but the law only applies to new projects approved starting this year.
Noah Berger, executive director at the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a Boston nonprofit research group, agreed with Eldridge that the state should be able to recoup tax money when companies don’t create the jobs they promised. But ideally, he said, the state wouldn’t offer such incentives in the first place.
“Corporations hire and fire based on demand for their products, not state tax policy,’’ he said.
They would claim the exact opposite so they can get that tack cut!
And they with threaten you to move!
Related: Boston Scientific’s heart device recall apt to cost it market share, analysts say
"Natick firm restarts sale of heart devices" by Associated Press | April 16, 2010
NATICK — Boston Scientific Corp. said yesterday it will resume selling two implantable heart defibrillators that were pulled from the market in March. The company said the Food and Drug Administration cleared two manufacturing changes....
And then the losses became even huger:
"Boston Scientific’s loss grows to $1.6b" by Bloomberg News | April 27, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO — Boston Scientific Corp. reported a wider first-quarter loss after sales of its heart defibrillators were hurt by a monthlong recall.
The net loss widened to nearly $1.6 billion....
“The challenge for the company will be to win back the trust of its customers,’’ the hospitals and the physician specialists who implant the devices in their patients, a JPMorgan Securities analyst, Michael Weinstein, said April 15.They are not winning any trust back.
--more--"
"Boston Scientific plea deal rejected; Judge suggests probation be part of settlement" by Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | April 28, 2010
A judge in Minnesota rejected a plea deal yesterday between Boston Scientific Corp. and the US Justice Department and ordered it to be revised, in a surprise move that prolongs the Natick company’s efforts to resolve problems at its heart-device business.
The ruling by Judge Donovan Frank at US District Court in St. Paul called on the government to put Boston Scientific on probation....
That's it?
The court action was the latest in a string of setbacks for Boston Scientific, which has been struggling to put longstanding legal and regulatory problems behind it. In February, the company disclosed its largest legal settlement in its 30-year history, agreeing to pay more than $1.7 billion to rival Johnson & Johnson to resolve three patent disputes.
On Monday, Boston Scientific posted a $1.6 billion loss in the first quarter and trimmed its guidance to securities analysts for the balance of the year, citing the suspension of defibrillator shipments in March because of mistakes in its regulatory filings. The Food and Drug Administration cleared the company on April 15 to resume defibrillator sales. The company said in February that it plans to eliminate up to 1,300 jobs worldwide as part of a corporate restructuring.
--more--"I'm sorry, readers; I just no longer have the heart for this.
