Investing and Global Finance News

Monthly Archives: May 2017

Mark Fields Receiving $51.1 Million to Step Down

After three years as CEO at the Ford Motor Company, Mark Fields, age 56, will be leaving the company with a compensation package valued a $51.1 million. The pay-off will be in a combination of cash, stock awards, and pensions.

During his tenure as CEO Fields made historic profits for the company. Now, however, the stock price has eroded by 40 percent due to slipping confidence by investors in the future of the company.

Fields’ compensation package was calculated by the executive compensation tracking firm Equilar for the benefit of the Associated Press.

He will be eligible for $22.1 million in stock awards, will receive about $17.5 million in pension benefits, and could earn an additional $3.6 million bonus, as long as he is not hired by one of Ford’s competitors.

The former CEO also has $7.9 million in vested stock options. However, other stock options have no value at the moment since the company’s stock price crashed.

World’s Largest Private Equity Fund Investing in Technology

Softbank Vision Fund, the world’s largest private equity fund, recently said that it has raised over $93 billion to invest in technology. As they said in a statement, “The next stage of the Information Revolution is under way, and building the businesses that will make this possible will require unprecedented large-scale, long-term investment.” The fund… Continue Reading

China Wants US to Take Some Responsibility for WannaCry Cyber Attack

The recent global cyber-attack known as WannaCry infected over 300,000 computers around the world, with China among the hardest hit. As of Saturday, about 30,000 Chinese organizations were infected with a “ransomware” virus that takes advantage of weaknesses in Microsoft Corp systems. China lashed out against the United States in the wake of the damage,… Continue Reading

Alexium Takes the Prize

The premier business awards program in the United States announced its winners of the 15th annual prize. The Alexium International Group took a prize, which will be presented in New York in June. The CEO and executive director of Alexium, Nicholas Clark, was awarded the Silver Stevie Award for Executive of the Year in the… Continue Reading

Multi-Tasking with Garbage Trucks

Talk about multi-tasking. MIT’s Senseable City Lab, which tries to find ways to better understand modern cities, has a great new program called City Scanner. They are taking single-purpose garbage trucks and turning them into multi-tasking centers. There are currently five trucks in Cambridge, Massachusetts that are measuring many variables including air pollution, traffic status,… Continue Reading

Economy Dragging in Q1 2017

First Quarter figures are in, and they are not pretty. The country’s GDP grew at a three-year low rate of only 0.7 percent during the first three months of 2017, the slowest growth since January-March 2014. The news of the poor economic performance comes in stark contrast to the great expectations held by newly elected… Continue Reading