Home > Uncategorized > The Downfall Of Legg Mason

The Downfall Of Legg Mason

June 23rd, 2009
Legg Mason, a prominent mutual fund company based in Baltimore, MD, showed its true hand yesterday.   If there is any doubt that this company has learned anything from the bank industry downfall, then let me show you why I doubt it.  

In a year which has seen the following highlights:

Then this comes across the wire on Monday: 

Legg Mason’s Fetting nets $6.5M in 2009 compensation


“In raising Fetting’s compensation, the company’s board of directors considered Fetting’s “accomplishments during the year, including his leadership during one of the worst financial crises of the last 100 years,” Athridge said in an e-mailed statement.

Fetting was credited with helping the company raise $1.15 billion in capital, recruiting new top executives, cutting expenses by $135 million and selling off billions in structured investment vehicles, or SIVs, from the company’s money market funds, Athridge said.”

 

Leadership worth a 39% raise?  Am I missing something or was it Fetting’s leadership that guided the company into these problems?    Yep, wait for it – from Legg Mason’s own site:   

Mark Fetting joined Legg Mason in June 2000 as Senior Advisor focusing on strategy.
In case you didn’t read the article earlier – Baltimore-based Legg Mason (NYSE:LM) lost $1.9 billion for the year ended March 31

Related posts:

  1. Legg Mason Shareholders Continue to Amaze
  2. The Biggest Lie – The Stimulus Package
  3. Uninspired Leadership
  4. BGE Cost Watch
  5. Realities of Capitalism

Ben Brouse Uncategorized

  1. Unknown
    June 23rd, 2009 at 13:02 | #1
    Reply | Quote

    Yep, that’s par for the course over here at Legg Mason. Cutting the rank and file employees left and right via layoffs… yet the executives continue to reward themselves.

  2. Unknown
    June 24th, 2009 at 16:12 | #2
    Reply | Quote

    Thanks for the informative blog about LM. It truly is disturbing that a company could squander such amounts of salary/bonuses and raises on management that has put the company into the red for billions of dollars. And yet justify the layoffs of decent, hard working employees living on the current wages that have been frozen.

Comments are closed.