MICROSOFT HAS REVEALED details of another multi-million dollar loan made to an executive, in a proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company confessed to having given mergers and acquisitions veep Richard Emerson a $12 million loan at around the time he was appointed in November 2000. We guess he needed a few extra nick-nacks for his house.
The Vole recently revealed that it had made a similar loan to former number three in the company, Rick Belluzzo, as part of a package to woo him to the company. Lucky Belluzzo was "forgiven the loan" when he left Microsoft to take up the CEO"s job at storage specialist Quantum.
Such loans are now outlawed under new laws designed to clean up corporate America, following the string of scandals that suggested companies were about as trustworthy as politicians. Microsoft says it has now given up the practice of dishing out mega-loans, which it seems, allow the executives to earn interest on at a higher rate than is charged by the company making the loan. It remains to be seen whether the 40 year-old Emerson will be forgiven his loan.