Today’s Federal Register.
Cigna is selling its $2 billion pension business as reported by Bloomberg.com: “Cigna Hires Goldman to Sell Pension Unit, People Say.”
Norman Cohen for FT.com reports: “Arcane actuarial science widens political divide over pensions.” The article quotes Steven Kandarian, the chief executive of the PBGC, who in a speech last week, outlined four choices for policymakers considering the future of the PBGC:
The first option, he says, is to do nothing. The second and third options, increasing substantially the premiums paid by healthy employers or significantly increasing company contributions, are likely to be aggressively opposed by employers. The fourth, diplomatically described as “general revenue transfer” – a bailout by the taxpayer – is unlikely to win the support of the Bush administration.
Fox News is carrying this article regarding William Donaldson’s interview with the Associated Press yesterday: “SEC Chief: Crackdown Calming Investors.” Regarding the pension funding issue, the article quotes Donaldson, chairman of the SEC, as saying in the interview that “[s]ome corporations have made overly optimistic projections of their future earnings, allowing them to boost short-term profits with money that otherwise should have gone to shore up pension funds.” With respect to stock options, the article quotes Donaldson as saying that “some companies still ‘haven’t gotten the message’ when it comes to lavishing pay packages and stock options on executives.”
In the meantime, Sun Microsystems Inc. is granting stock options to a number of senior executives as reported by Reuters: “Sun grants stock options to CEO, other executives.” The article reports that the news came even after “shares of Sun fell 19 percent after it reported quarterly earnings below Wall Street expectations and analysts wondered when it might recover from the technology spending downturn.”
On the other hand, today’s edition of the Wall Street Journal is reporting: “Companies Get Stingy With Stock Options: Many Employees Will Find Their Awards Sharply Reduced; When to Cash In Old Ones.” (Subscription required.)