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October 5, 2009 9:29 PM

Schering's Say-on-Pay Survey Goes M.I.A.

By
Jim Edwards
(MoneyWatch)  Did Schering-Plough plan -- and then kill or delay -- a "say on pay" survey of its investors? That's one possibility raised by "Condor" at Shearlings Got Plowed, the blog that obsessively examines goings-on at the company that's soon to be merged into Merck.

A say-on-pay survey of Schering investors would be most interesting because CEO Fred Hassan's compensation is famously lavish. BNET previously estimated his payout in the Merck merger at $77 million. Condor thinks it could be $173 million. The WSJ estimates a "mere" $56 million.

Condor's post relies on this blog item by a lawyer named Raphael M. Russo at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. The item states:
... the company is evaluating a process to complete and discuss the survey before the proposed transaction with Merck closes.
No survey was included with the Schering proxy filing, Condor reports. Which raises the question: If the survey was planned but didn't go out to investors with the proxy materials, when, if ever, does Schering want to see that vote published?

Adding to the mystery: blogger/lawyer Russo and Schering board member Patricia F. Russo, former CEO of Alcatel-Lucent, share the same last name. Does one Russo know something the rest of us don't?

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.
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