"Coca-Cola revises executive pay after criticism" AP October 02, 2014
NEW YORK — Coca-Cola is curtailing its pay plan for executives after shareholders including Warren Buffett called it excessive.
The world’s largest beverage maker said Wednesday its long-term incentive program will now distribute the company’s shares to a smaller group of executives, while the rest will be rewarded with cash bonuses instead.
That will mean the total shares authorized to be awarded under the plan will last longer. In addition, Coke said the mix of long-term equity awards will be adjusted to be more heavily weighted to performance shares, rather than stock options.
Coca-Cola’s pay plan came under scrutiny earlier this year after Wintergreen Advisers called it a ‘‘raw deal’’ for shareholders, particularly in light of the company’s slowing growth as it faces declining soda consumption in the United States and other parts of the world.
Wintergreen chief executive Dave Winters had said the company’s equity plan would transfer roughly $13 billion to management over four years.
In a statement Wednesday, Winters said, ‘‘Coca-Cola has finally conceded that the equity compensation plan it put to a vote of shareholders in April was outrageously excessive and inconsistent with past plans.’’
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is Coke’s biggest shareholder.
Last year, Coca-Cola’s chief executive, Muhtar Kent, received a pay package worth $18.2 million, according to an Associated Press calculation.
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And if you want to make the stuff at home:
"SodaStream’s run at Coke, Pepsi losing steam" Associated Press October 08, 2014
NEW YORK —Chief executive Daniel Birnbaum said the Israeli company’s US business underperformed in the third quarter because of lower-than-expected demand for its soda makers and flavors. While it successfully established a base of repeat users in the United States, Birnbaum said, SodaStream isn’t attracting new users at the rate the company would like....
Not making enough money?
SodaStream has touted its machines as a cheaper, more environmentally friendly alternative to buying bottled or canned drinks such as Coke and Pepsi.
I thought soda contributed to obesity and diabetes and we all ought to be getting off it.
It has been trying to make a splash in the United States and advertised in the last two Super Bowls, with the latest commercial featuring actress Scarlett Johansson.
There was criticism of her for that in some quarters because of Israel's actions via Palestine.
The machines are in 1 percent of US homes, the company has said, compared to as many as 25 percent in Sweden.
Related: Israel protests Sweden’s plan to recognize Palestine
And down go sales again.
SodaStream will soon face formidable competition. Keurig Green Mountain, known for its single-serve coffee makers, is expected to soon introduce a machine for cold drinks.
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I think I will skip the soda in any form.
What leaves one flat is the lack of reference to the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction movement that has let the fi$$ out of Soda$tream.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Berkshire’s pensioners unfazed by bond scares" Bloomberg News October 06, 2014
NEW YORK — Bill Gross’s departure from Pacific Investment Management Co. sent ripples through the bond market. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. pensioners didn’t feel it.
Warren Buffett, Berkshire’s chairman and chief executive, said last week that he did not know of a single investment his company or its dozens of subsidiaries had with Pimco, manager of the world’s largest bond fund. Why?
‘‘We manage all of our pensions internally, except for those connected with the utility business,’’ Buffett said in an interview on CNBC. ‘‘We are all equities, anyways. We don’t have any bonds in our pension funds.’’
That Buffett favors stocks over bonds is well known. He built Berkshire into the fifth-biggest company in the world (by market value) by using funds from insurance subsidiaries to invest in equities and make acquisitions.
Two years ago, he called bonds ‘‘among the most dangerous of assets’’ and said yields were too low to compensate investors for the risk of inflation.
See: Deflating Economic Post
What’s less talked about is how he’s taken a similar approach with Berkshire’s billions of dollars in pension assets....
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