The Sum shines, brightly indeed, on The Sun King and his family

Is any comment called for - other than to gasp!- when one reads this from Crikey, an Australian on-line daily publication?:

"The latest trip on the News Corporation gravy train trip -- for chairman Rupert Murdoch, son James and two other senior executives -- has left the station and could, over the next three years, shower hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and shares on the four men involved.

Besides Rupert and James Murdoch, the other members of this exclusive train ride are CEO Chase Carey and finance boss David DeVoe.

The new arrangements could see all four men receiving a minimum of $US60 million in cash and shares and a maximum of $US123 million in cash and shares a year over the next three years, starting with the current 2011 financial year.

For the four, there are cash bonuses of a minimum of $37.5 million for the current financial year, and a maximum of $100.5 million. This is before base salaries paid to the four men (US4.05 million in the case of Carey this year and $US8.1 million in 2009 for Rupert Murdoch).

In addition, the four men could receive a further $US22.5 million of News Corp shares (in varying proportions), for the current financial year. The bonuses and the performance share awards for 2012 and 2013 were not given in the filing with the US securities and Exchange Commission filing overnight. They will be announced at later dates in each of the years, judging from the filing.

The filing said "The new compensation framework is intended to increase the total portion of each eligible officer’s compensation that is performance-based and that is tied to the company’s equity and will be made in lieu of the company’s EPS-based annual bonus and discretionary long-term equity awards granted previously and described in the company’s proxy statement filed on August 20, 2009."

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