Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

Virgin Media chief executive Neil Berkett took home a total remuneration package of $5.7 million (£3.6m) last year, despite the company imposing a pay freeze to cut costs.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitalt...m-in-2009.html

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

I see no issue, he has helped turn the corner for the company this year. They have refinanced themselves, and made a profit. Now of course it is a rather large sum of money. I would have a big issue if he was taking a big bonus if they had not been successful.

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

Agreed

He gets my support. However i await the hecklers to descend on the thread with interest

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

The important part in the OP link was, imho So if he hadn't delivered, he would not have been rewarded - sounds fair to me.

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

Neil is doing a good job... He does deserve his pay. VM is in good shape and getting better all the time :tu:

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

If you want people like Berkett working for you, you have to pay them this level of wages.
The guy has saved the company countless times more than what he's being paid.

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

Agreed he has done some amazing things with the company in the last few years and continues to show signs that he has no intention of stopping. He does not have the limitless resources of Sky but has managed to reduce and refinance debt and make a nice bit of operating cash. In that link it also says that he took a pay cut and as posted above is that the lion share of that came from reaching targets that had been set.

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

Have to agree with the general sentiment so far, looking at their share price alone since he took over, he appears to have done some great things for Virgin Media.

I think back to the Sky One fiasco, the man held his nerve and got a fair price for that channel. Going up against Sky shows a lot of character, so I say well done that man.

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

Market rate. If he were not getting that kind of money from Virgin Media he'd be getting it elsewhere. Really good management is expensive.

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

It is good to see that we are all in agreement and that good management has to be well paid.;)

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

I am happy to see that as well.....;)

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

Yes in this meritocratic society we live in...

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

Just like the bankers, there is something completely obscene about this.

Why should someone be "rewarded" for doing a job? Fine, they get a decent salary, but that should be it, no share options/bonuses.

Then of course we have the small matter that VM is still in several billion pounds of debt.

Another poster has said here that VM are in good shape, really? I don't see a company which has never made a profit, has huge debts and non existent growth depending on how many customers VM say they have on any one particular day. One minute its one number, and another minute its a totally different figure. 50k customers all of a sudden aren't real paying customers, or, there's another data cleanse and another 50k customers disappear or reappear, or whatever it is. Total shambles and certainly no one should be paid 3.6 million for that.

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

His salary is something like £500k... he got a PERFORMANCE related bonus based on how well he did his job.

Sky's CEO gets £800k before bonuses... Neil is working hard for his.

VM is in good shape, sure they have their problems and they are far from perfect... lots of companies don't make a profit and are in debt, VM are investing in their network to GROW the business beyond their current footprint.

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

I cannot see any problem with anyone getting a performance related bonus. If you don't deliver what you are contracted to do then you don't get it.

Many years ago when I worked in manufacturing I was a Machine operator on a basic pay of £39.00 per week plus performance related bonuses, my take - home pay per week was £98.00, a lot of money then.

Equate that from the late 70's to now. I would be on quite a few thou a week!

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

I'm all in favour of people being paid what they're worth. I'd like therefore to propose a new charging model for VM, instead of charging a fixed amount each month, how about we all send them a cheque for what we think it's been worth? Any support for this?

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

But the parameters and targets for this chap's pay/bonuses were previously agreed, and he met/exceeded those parameters, so he wasn't just paid what he thought he was worth - you are comparing apples with hermaphrodites...;)

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

I don't care what anyone says, no one is worth that sort of money, it is absolutely bonkers to pay that some of money to anyone.

A service is paid for by the customer, and therefore we are paying his wages, and the service that we get is poor, we might have a good Phone and bb service, but he should vastly improve the cs we get, we don't get told anything, VM is like getting on the circle line, it goes round and round and nothing happens.

Total digusting salary. I would have to work for the next twenty years to get anything nearly a million, let alone a years salary.:mad:

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

Look at how much money he has saved the company. Operating costs, SG&A, both down year on year by far more than it costs to employ him.

Compare his earnings to savings he's made and you'll see that it's an absolute bargain. People who save big companies millions are worth millions. That's how business works. He's paid less than 1/10th of what he's saved the company.

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

Bloddy hell, Arthur - you earn 50k per year! Impressive!

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

he hit target by imposing a pay freeze on the people who earn the least how is that fair? :rolleyes:

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

No l earn about 25k per year, but l feel that NO ONE is worth that amount of money, he might run VM, and people feel that he deserves it, but l don't.

There are loads of people that work hard for 12 /15 hours a day for a pittance of of a wage to put food on the table for there families, l don't agree that people are worth that, look at footballers - and l know it going off the topic, £100.000 per week. its disgraceful.

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

How do you judge how much someone is worth?

If someone saves a company millions then they are surely worth millions.

If someone brings a company in millions of additional revenue then surely they are worth millions.

Footballers are paid millions because they generate millions in revenue. There's nothing disgraceful about it, it's simple businesses.

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

berkett saved money by cutting and freezing pay for normal people then gave himself a large bonus, not exactly moral is it :dozey:

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

He had a pay freeze, plus he didn't give himself a bonus that was in his contract presumably drawn up by a board of shareholders. Loads of companies had pay freezes last year (the one I work for included) and that didn't stop those that make the company money from getting a bonus.

Most people have to remember that a a chap in Berketts positions isn't a paper pusher or a telephone operator. He is responsible for the entire company and when it all goes wrong and the company makes a huge loss he will be tossed out on his ass just as quick. It just so happens that he has done quite a good job of late especially in an economic climate that the likes of us have never seen before.

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

Does that incl bonus or is that basic pay?

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

He isn't responsible for his bonus size.
"Normal people" had a pay freeze, he had a pay cut. Sounds fair to me?

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

NO company should pay a member of staff that amount of money, Each year that staff have the have the wage frozen and told there wage must be within a certain figure, a poultry figure, an yet the management, paid themself a huge salary and added additions.

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

Arthur, do you read other posts - he actually took a cut in his basic......

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

The staff are paid in chickens? Turkeys? Ducks?

If it were excessive the shareholders wouldn't allow it. He can get this money elsewhere so the job market must think he's worth it.

It's a ridiculously large amount of money but it is what it is.

---------- Post added at 23:06 ---------- Previous post was at 23:01 ----------

Nah I don't think he deserves it but it's what the job market thinks he's worth.

I have no idea how you manage to make about 25k a year and live only a few miles from where I do, the take home on that would barely pay my rent :erm:

Re: Virgin Media's Berkett paid £3.6m in 2009
 

tough call.

one could argue collectively the VM workforce below director level also saved millions via hard work but do they get the same 3.6million bonus shared amongst them?

I always found these type of bonuses hard to justify, its as if these guys only work for results to get a bonus and not satisified with a 6k salary.