Buffett Punts on Pay
As Buffett would later acknowledge, the Winters letter prompted him to take a closer look at Coke’s equity compensation plan. And, sure enough, he came to the same conclusion as Winters: It was excessive — “you can give away too much of a company,” he told Becky Quick of CNBC on Wednesday, in the wake of the annual meeting. But he didn’t divulge his views to anyone on the Coca-Cola board. And when it came time to vote with Berkshire Hathaway’s 400 million shares, he abstained.
.. This was potentially a teachable moment — Buffett could have shown other directors that it is O.K. to dissent from an executive compensation plan and still “love” the company. “He could have shown that you can separate out feelings of liking management with disagreeing with something management does,”
.. How sad. If Warren Buffett won’t use his unparalleled clout to rein in excessive compensation, how can we expect anyone else to?