InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

[blueskywaves]

Please let’s never say again that Mr. Campagna does not get paid for his “part-time” work as Board Chairman of IDCC.” The words “excessive compensation” come to my mind regarding IDCC’s outside directors.

I dunno', Ronny. It's bad enough that you insist on using deeply flawed data to judge IDCC's executive compensation program but now you want to go after the board too!

More than 70% of the Fortune 500 have ONLY one person holding the titles of Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. Many people now believe that it is easier for a large corporation to have an independent board if the Chairmanship and the CEO positions are held by different people. IDCC is still a small company with a headcount of only 300, but yet you argue that the Chairmanship is only a part-time position. Clearly, IDCC is headed in the right direction with company tradition already of separating the Chairmanship and the CEO positions.

By the way, S&P 500 CEOs raked in $6.4B in total compensation last year when the S&P 500 tanked by 24%. That's an average compensation of $12.8M per CEO for negative shareholder value creation. The top CEO was Apple's Steve Jobs who raked in $90M in total compensation in 2002 while its stock dropped by 35%!

Again, you strain credulity when you say that IDCC's management is overpaid considering that they increased the stock by 50% in 2002 after increasing it by 79% in 2001. Do you know that ONLY 4 of the 75 technology companies in the S&P 500 generated positive returns in 2002????

http://www.thestreet.com/funds/stephenschurr/10085883.html

I understand you think that IDCC's compensation should be compared to other small tech stocks, but to this day you have have been unable to respond to my direct point that a more useful and honest basis for comparison is a basket of other companies with comparable licensing models because the litigation risks in a licensing model forces a company to pay higher compensation to compete effectively for managerial and technical talent in an open market characterized by the presence of a very large number of players who continue to use the options systems very aggressively to boost cash flow. As you know, IDCC had practically no access to the equity markets after the 1995 Motorola debacle.

Hey this is a free country. If you want to be known as a corporate gadfly with a penchant for questionable data, please feel free to go ahead. Be prepared, however, to be tuned out for being a flake.

BSWhy

P.S. I think restricted stock units are generally treated like restricted stock.