Companies That Should Pay CEOs $1 A Year

Certain large cap companies have performed poorly enough that it would not be unreasonable to ask their top manager to take $1 a year in salary and give them a chance to make money on performance-based bonuses and restricted stock grants.

Yahoo! (YHOO)  Stock down from $43 to $28 in last year. No one believes it can get back into the race as the "go to" website.

Apollo Group  (APOL) Company was viewed at the winner in the online education business. Management blew that up and took stock from $82 to $41.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Management had convinced Wall St. that the company had Intel on the run in the server and PC markets. Then investors found out the market share was paid for by plunging operating margins. A $40 stock less than a year ago, now goes for about $20.

Sandisk (SNDK) The leader in flash memory cards, management decided to build expensive fabrication facilities at a cost of as much as $5 billion per. Stock was almost $80 a year ago, goes for $46 now.

Sirius (SIRI) In December 2005, the stock was almost $8. With subscriber growth, Howard Stern, and forecasts of positive cash flow, all the company can manage now is just over $4.

Ebay (EBAY) Stock was at $59 at the end of 2004. Company has not been able to get markets to buy into overseas growth story and Skype purchase looks insane. Stock is $30 now.

St. Jude. (STJ) Traded at almost $55 a year ago and $38 now. Bet much of the company’s growth on implantable cardioverter defibrillator and stands in third place in the market behind Medtronic and Boston Scientific.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does now own securities in companies that he writes about.