Microsoft Announces Increase in Quarterly Dividend; Gilmartin to Retire From Microsoft Board of Directors

Press release:

Microsoft Announces Increase in Quarterly Dividend; Gilmartin to Retire From Microsoft Board of Directors

Sept. 18, 2012

Dividend of $0.23 per share payable in December

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REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 18, 2012 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that its board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.23 per share, reflecting a 3 cent or 15 percent increase over the previous quarter’s dividend. The dividend is payable December 13, 2012 to shareholders of record on November 15, 2012. The ex-dividend date will be November 13, 2012. 

The company also announced that Raymond V. Gilmartin, former chairman, president and chief executive officer of Merck & Co., Inc., has decided that after 11 years of service, he will retire from and not seek re-election to Microsoft’s board of directors at the company’s 2012 annual meeting of shareholders.

Gilmartin, 71, who joined the Microsoft board in 2001, is reducing his professional commitments to free up more personal time. “It’s been a real pleasure to work with Microsoft during a transformative period for the company, and see first-hand the vision and dedication that are reshaping Microsoft’s future and the future of the industry,” Gilmartin said.

“Ray has been a strong and insightful member of the board. We appreciate his many contributions over the past eleven years,” said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive officer. 

With Gilmartin’s departure, the Microsoft board will have ten members: Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman; Steve Ballmer; Dina Dublon, former chief financial officer of JPMorgan Chase; Reed Hastings, founder, chairman and CEO of Netflix Inc.; Maria M. Klawe, president, Harvey Mudd College; Stephen J. Luczo, chairman, president and CEO of Seagate Technology PLC; David F. Marquardt, general partner at August Capital; Charles H. Noski, former vice chairman of Bank of America Corp.; Dr. Helmut G. W. Panke, former chairman of the board of management at BMW AG; and John W. Thompson, CEO of Virtual Instruments.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

For more information, financial analysts and investors only: 

Investor Relations, Microsoft, (425) 706-4400

Press release:

Alex Pinchev Joins BMC Software Board of Directors

HOUSTON, Sept. 17, 2012– BMC Software (NASDAQ: BMC) has named Alex Pinchev to its board of directors, effective immediately.

 

Mr. Pinchev brings over 25 years of senior executive experience in the software industry to the BMC Software board of directors. Currently, he is president and chief executive officer of Acronis, a leading provider of data protection and disaster recovery software.

 

Prior to joining Acronis in January 2012, Mr. Pinchev was president of global sales, services and field marketing at Red Hat. During his career, Mr. Pinchev has held numerous senior executive roles within a range of technology companies – including MRO Software, Interchip and MainControl Inc where he was chairman, CEO and founder.

 

"Alex Pinchev is an experienced and dynamic IT executive with a very successful track record as a global sales leader,” said Bob Beauchamp, BMC’s chairman and chief executive officer. "He also brings the insights gained from serving as CEO and senior executive for several IT companies. BMC’s board of directors welcomes Alex and looks forward to benefitting from his global experience and independent voice."

 

Mr. Pinchev said, “Today, organizations demand greater collaboration, and with the rise in mobile computing, end users are driving a dramatic reshaping of enterprise IT. Data accessibility, availability and protection needs are introducing sweeping changes, ranging from ‘bring your own device’ in the workplace to the rapid virtualization of IT infrastructure and adoption of Cloud strategies.”

 

“BMC Software is at the center of this IT revolution and is doing more than any other company to help IT organizations transform to meet these new expectations,” Mr. Pinchev continued. “I am very excited to join the BMC board of directors, and I look forward to helping drive the company’s future direction and success.”

 

Mr. Pinchev holds a master’s degree in applied mathematics and computer science from University ITMO in St. Petersburg in Russia.

Business Runs on IT. IT Runs on BMC Software.

Business runs better when IT runs at its best. That's why more than 20,000 IT organizations – from the Global 100 to the smallest businesses – in over 120 countries rely on BMC Software (NASDAQ: BMC) to manage their business services and applications across distributed, mainframe, virtual and cloud environments. With the leading Business Service Management platform, Cloud Management, and the industry’s broadest choice of IT management solutions, BMC helps customers cut costs, reduce risk and achieve business objectives. For the four fiscal quarters ended June 30, 2012, BMC revenue was approximately $2.2 billion.

Flextronics CFO and EVP Paul Read Elected to Ingram Micro Board of Directors

Press release from Ingram Micro:

Flextronics CFO and EVP Paul Read Elected to Ingram Micro Board of Directors

SANTA ANA, Calif., Aug. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Ingram Micro Inc. (NYSE: IM), the world's largest technology distributor and supply-chain services provider, today announced that its board of directors elected Paul Read, chief financial officer and executive vice president for Flextronics, to serve as an independent director, and appointed him to serve as a member of the Audit and the Human Resources Committees, all effective Sept. 1, 2012. The election of Read increases the Ingram Micro board of directors from 10 to 11."We welcome Paul to the board," said Dale R. Laurance, chairman of the board, Ingram Micro Inc. "Ingram Micro will benefit from his many years of hands-on, executive level financial experience, as well as his valuable perspective on successfully operating a complex global organization. We look forward to Paul's contribution."Read, 46, has served as chief financial officer and executive vice president for Flextronics sinceJune 30, 2008. Previously he served as the company's executive vice president of Finance for Worldwide Operations. Flextronics is a $30 billion, industry-leading, Fortune Global 500 electronics manufacturing services provider with more than 200,000 employees and operations in 30 countries. Read's financial management and operations background includes increasingly important roles at Flextronics where he has led many critical initiatives that include serving as the lead executive responsible for the integration of the Solectron acquisition. Prior to joiningFlextronics in 1995, he held various senior financial positions in the United Kingdom with Allied Steel and Wire, STI Telecommunications and Associated British Foods.Read graduated from the University of Wales as a qualified Chartered Management Accountant. About Ingram Micro Inc. As a vital link in the technology value chain, Ingram Micro creates sales and profitability opportunities for vendors and resellers through unique marketing programs, outsourced logistics, technical and financial support, managed and cloud-based services, and product aggregation and distribution. The company is the only global broad-based IT distributor, serving 145 countries on six continents with the world's most comprehensive portfolio of IT products and services. Visit www.ingrammicro.com.

Richard Laube to Resign from Logitech Board of Directors

Press Releases

Richard Laube to Resign from Logitech Board of Directors

"Mr. Laube has provided valuable counsel in business strategy, brand and marketing, and his contribution will have lasting impact."

NEWARK, Calif. & MORGES, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Logitech International (SIX: LOGN) (Nasdaq: LOGI) today announced that Richard Laube will resign from Logitech’s board of directors to focus exclusively on his role as chief executive officer of Nobel Biocare Holding A.G. Mr. Laube, who has been a member of Logitech’s board of directors since 2008, will step down at the conclusion of the company’s Annual General Meeting on September 5, 2012 in Lausanne, Switzerland.

“We understand Richard Laube’s decision and wish to thank him for his service to Logitech,” said Guerrino De Luca, Logitech chairman and chief executive officer. “Mr. Laube has provided valuable counsel in business strategy, brand and marketing, and his contribution will have lasting impact.”

About Logitech

Logitech is a world leader in products that connect people to the digital experiences they care about. Spanning multiple computing, communication and entertainment platforms, Logitech’s combined hardware and software enable or enhance digital navigation, music and video entertainment, gaming, social networking, audio and video communication over the Internet, video security and home-entertainment control. Founded in 1981, Logitech International is a Swiss public company listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (LOGN) and on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (LOGI).

Logitech, the Logitech logo, and other Logitech marks are registered in Switzerland and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. For more information about Logitech and its products, visit the company’s Web site at www.logitech.com.

Accounting Board Faults Audits of Brokerage Firms

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Accounting Board Faults Audits of Brokerage Firms

By FLOYD NORRIS

The many auditors who inspect the financial statements of brokerage firms appear to be cutting corners and not doing all the work they should do, a worrisome sign after the collapse of the Peregrine Financial Group, a leading commodities brokerage firm, where a fraud had gone undetected for many years.

Having completed the first review of such brokerage firm audits, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board said on Monday that it had found deficiencies in every audit its inspectors reviewed.

“The auditors,” said Jeanette M. Franzel, a member of the board, “were not properly fulfilling their responsibilities to provide an independent check on brokers’ and dealers’ financial reporting and compliance with S.E.C. rules.”

That does not mean that any of the statements misrepresented the financial conditions of the 23 brokerage firms whose audits were reviewed by inspectors from the board. In most cases, the accounting board concluded that the audit firm had failed to do the necessary work to ensure that the financial statements were accurate or that the firms had sufficient capital.

“In 13 of the 23 audits,” the board reported, auditors “did not perform sufficient procedures to identify, assess and respond to the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements due to fraud.”

Lynn Turner, a former chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission, called the report “mind-boggling” and said it indicated that audit firms had failed to respond to the disclosure of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. It was that fraud that led Congress to authorize the oversight board to review audits of brokerage firms.

The Peregrine fraud was uncovered after the National Futures Association, a self-regulator, stopped relying on paper copies of bank records in its own inspections. Peregrine had forged such records for years. Its independent auditor, a one-person firm, did not discover the fraud even though bank accounts are supposed to be confirmed.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

U.S. Chamber Joins Challenge to NLRB Appointments

Says Dubious Appointments Have Further Eroded NLRB’s Credibility

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) today moved for leave to intervene in a lawsuit to challenge the authority of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to adjudicate charges absent a three-member quorum. The Chamber and CDW seek a swift and decisive ruling whether the president’s dubious recess appointments of Sharon Block, Terence F. Flynn, and Richard Griffin to the NLRB unlawfully circumvented the Senate’s constitutional power to provide advice and consent to the appointment of executive branch officers. The case, Noel Canning v. National Labor Relations Board, is before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

“Appointing three of five members to the NLRB in a legally questionable way casts doubt on the work of the entire agency,” said Thomas J. Donohue, president and CEO of the Chamber. “We cautioned in January that shoehorning these nominees into office in this controversial way would throw the legal validity of every decision of the Board into question.  Our concern has now become a reality. We are simply asking the courts to sort out the question of the NLRB’s authority quickly, so that employers and employees alike can have predictability and certainty.”

Noel Canning, a small business operating in Washington state, appealed a ruling by the NLRB that the company had violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The Chamber’s public policy law firm, the National Chamber Litigation Center, filed a motion on behalf of the Chamber for leave to intervene in the case in support of Noel Canning. The Chamber seeks to argue that the three attempted recess appointments were not legally effective because the President made them when the Senate was in session, not in recess. Accordingly, the Board lacks the statutorily required quorum of at least three members to adjudicate disputes and issue rules.

“Allowing the Board to act when it may not have a quorum adds even more uncertainty to our economic climate,” continued Donohue. “That is why we are looking to join a small business lawsuit to challenge these appointments—we want the authority of the Board clarified. Employers and employees need to know what it means when the NLRB orders an employer to bargain with a union, to modify its compensation and benefit plans, or to cease contracting work—to offer just a few examples.  Is the order legally rendered, or will it be invalidated in the future?  Without this kind of certainty, we cannot foster an environment that will lead to economic growth and job creation.”

The Chamber’s motion for leave to intervene is available here: http://www.chamberlitigation.com/noel-canning-v-national-labor-relations-board

FTC Terminates Employment Scam

News release from the FTC:

For Release: 01/31/2012

FTC Action Terminates Nationwide Employment Scam

Agency Cautions Consumers: Be Wary of Job Offers that Charge Fees

An operation that allegedly deceived consumers with bogus promises of nonexistent sales jobs will be banned from marketing any employment products or services under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.
The proposed settlement order against National Sales Group and other defendants resolves FTC charges filed as part of a crackdown on scammers who falsely promise employment opportunities to financially distressed consumers. According to the FTC's complaint, the defendants advertised on CareerBuilder.com and other online job boards, and their telemarketers falsely told consumers they recruited for Fortune 1000 employers and had a unique ability to get them interviewed and hired.

The FTC complaint alleged that the defendants charged fees, purportedly for background checks and other services, and often overcharged, taking $97 from consumers who had agreed to pay $29 or $38. The defendants also allegedly charged some consumers recurring fees of $13.71 or more per month without their consent. At the FTC's request, in February 2011, the court halted the allegedly illegal practices and froze the defendants' assets pending litigation.

Under the proposed settlement order, Anthony J. Newton, National Sales Group, and I Life Marketing LLC, also doing business as Executive Sales Network and Certified Sales Jobs, are banned from selling employment products or services. They and co-defendant Jeremy S. Cooley are permanently prohibited from misrepresenting material facts about any product or service, and from violating the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule, including misrepresenting the benefits of a good or service or misrepresenting that any person is affiliated with or endorsed by another person or government entity. The defendants also are barred from violating the Rule by billing consumers without their consent and failing, during calls, to clearly and promptly disclose the seller's identity, the call's purpose, and the nature of the goods or services.

The order also bars the defendants from selling or using customers' personal information, failing to properly dispose of customer information, and attempting to collect payments from past customers. In addition, the order imposes a $13 million judgment that will be suspended once Newton has paid $279,000, terminated a lease on a 2009 Mercedes-Benz, and surrendered his interest in a residence in Huntington Beach, California. The full judgment will be imposed immediately if the defendants are found to have misrepresented their financial condition.

The Commission vote approving the proposed consent order was 4-0. It is subject to court approval. The FTC filed the proposed consent order in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

For more information, read Job Hunting-Job Scams.

Obama Defies Lawmakers with Recess Appointments to Labor Board

The following was gleaned from an article published by The Hill.

Obama defies lawmakers with recess appointments to labor board

January 5, 2012

The Hill

President Obama will recess-appoint his nominees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), bypassing a likely filibuster from Senate Republicans to keep the controversial agency operating in 2012.

The president will use recess appointments to install Sharon Block, Richard Griffin and Terence Flynn as NLRB members. Block and Griffin are Democrats, while Flynn is a Republican.

The NLRB announcement came a few hours after the president made a public show of another recess appointment, for Richard Cordray, the new director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Republicans reacted with fury to that appointment, which the White House promptly ignored by making three more. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blasted the president’s decision and said he is stripping the Senate of its oversight powers, since the NLRB nominees had not been vetted in a hearing.

The NLRB appointments are a huge victory for Obama’s union allies, which urged the president to use any means necessary to keep the NLRB functioning. Without additional members, the NLRB would have lacked the three-member quorum needed to issue rules and regulations.

Unions had been frustrated by the president’s moves on trade and regulations in 2011, and the NLRB appointments could help wipe the slate clean ahead of the 2012 campaign.

But the move also puts Obama at odds with business, which has clashed repeatedly with the NLRB in recent months. Bruce Josten, the chief lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, denounced the recess appointments as political favoritism and said they will “further poison the well” at the labor board. 

The president is wading into uncharted waters with the appointments, made while the Senate is holding pro forma sessions. Dave Hirschmann, a top official with the Chamber, said a court battle over the constitutionality of Obama’s action is a near certainty.

The GOP’s blockade of NLRB nominees would have prevented it from issuing rules and regulations, since it needs at least three members to form a quorum. The recess appointment of Craig Becker expired Tuesday, leaving the NLRB with only two members.

With Block, Flynn and Griffin now members of the NLRB, the labor board is up to its full roster of five members.

Republicans tried to prevent recess appointments by keeping the Senate in pro forma session over the holiday break, but the White House said that maneuver is meaningless.

Lawyers for several business groups immediately began to explore their legal options to challenge the recess appointments.