* Sanjay Jha’s golden parachute from Google is nearly the size of Illinois’ $100 million, ten year tax incentive deal agreed to earlier this year. Sheesh…
Motorola Mobility Chief Executive Sanjay Jha could get a $65.7 million payout related to the company’s deal to sell itself to Google for $12.5 billion.
The so-called golden parachute payment would include $13.2 million in cash and $52.4 million in equity related compensation, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
To celebrate this momentous occasion, feel free to caption this photo feature Jha and Gov. Pat Quinn…
* Meanwhile, the governor is preparing to leave for China tomorrow…
Quinn said an increase in exports will create more jobs in Illinois.
“I don’t think any state in the union that really wants to get more jobs should miss the opportunity to interact with other countries that either want to invest in our state or want to buy our goods and services. That’s part of the job of a governor nowadays, especially in the 21st century,” Quinn said.
Quinn said he plans to sign an agreement with China that would increase soybean exports. China, according to Quinn, is the third largest exporter for Illinois, behind Canada and Mexico.
The Governor also plans to visit Japan for a conference at the end of his trip to China. He is scheduled to return to Illinois on September 24.
At least our politics will calm down for a while.
* Finally, some heartening business news…
Venture capital investment in Illinois companies reached a record $1.45 billion last year and is on track to surpass that level in 2011, according to new data scheduled to be released Thursday by a group of four local organizations.
The numbers also show that $864.5 million has been invested during the first half of 2011. The lion’s share of investment, about $856 million, has flowed to the Chicago metropolitan area. […]
[Maura O’Hara, executive director of the Illinois Venture Capital Association] said the index should underpin the state’s efforts in drawing more investment activity from local and outside sources.
“Some of our political problems have not helped our image, but (with) the excitement over the last couple of years, particularly over Groupon, I’ve seen a lot of (venture capital firms) outside the state calling up and saying, ‘What’s going on in the state? Can you introduce me to some firms there?’” O’Hara said. “That’s not something that happened five years ago.”
* However…
Illinois home foreclosure activity rose 17.6 percent in August compared to the previous month.
A report released Thursday by Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac shows Illinois with 12,493 foreclosure filings last month. Filings include default notices, auction-sale notices and bank repossessions.
The filings represent one in every 424 housing units in the state. That rate is almost 26 percent lower than in August of last year and eighth-highest nationally.
* Related…
* Woman’s dogged determination made lives better: So for four years, she lobbied and testified and twisted arms as forcefully as she could. With state Rep. Mary Flowers (D-Chicago) at her side to fight for the legislation, they succeeded in giving the people of Illinois the right to an impartial review of an insurer’s denial of medical treatment, including a 48-hour deadline in cases where a patient is critically ill. Gov. Pat Quinn signed the legislation last month. Why did this have to happen this way? Perhaps you didn’t know it, but before Polka’s crusade there was no law that required insurance companies to justify why they refused to pay for medical care or drugs ordered by a doctor — even if the patient would die without such care.
* Suit: State Farm covered up donations to justice who voted in its favor: Lawyers in a class-action case accuse insurance giant State Farm of defrauding the Illinois Supreme Court by covering up its support of the Republican candidate in the most expensive state judicial race in U.S. history.
* Quinn says McCormick Place union negotiations ‘going well’
* ComEd on outages: Maintenance isn’t the issue: “Right now a customer has to call us to tell us they have an outage. It’s ridiculous. The smart meters would automatically tell (the company) when somebody loses power,” McMahan said, explaining part of the reason the smart grid is needed.
* Village to ComEd: Amp up your service: [Downers Grove] has experienced 1,482 power outages since 2007. Equipment-related issues were the number one cause of these outages, according to the report.
* Coal-to-gas developer won’t lobby legislature: The developers of a coal-to-gas plant in Downstate Illinois say they will not lobby legislators to force the state’s utilities to purchase the synthetic gas their plant hopes to produce. Chicago-based Integrys Group, which owns utilities Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas, announced last week that they will not sign contracts to purchase the synthetic natural gas to be produced in Southeast Chicago by Leucadia National Corp. and by Power Holdings of Illinois in Downstate Jefferson County. In response to indications by Leucadia that it may lobby the legislature to force Integrys’ hand, Power Holdings — which has spent eight years lobbying for its project in Springfield — said it does not intend to follow that path.
* Environmental justice groups fight pollution problems on Southeast Side
* UAW extends Chrysler, GM contracts after missed deadline
* Verizon to expand 4G network to 5 Illinois markets
- Wensicia - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 6:59 am:
Perhaps that should read “Steal of the State of Illinois”?
- OneMan - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 7:20 am:
Caption:
You will give me the incentives…
Move along…
- Bill - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 7:22 am:
The rich get richer and the poor…well who cares.
same old story
- Gregor Samsa - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 7:22 am:
Motorola is a unique company; so often over the years, positioned for tremendous success, but always hobbled by incompetent management that squanders every advantage. Maybe Google will break the cycle.
- Huh? - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 7:28 am:
Sanjay - That isn’t my hand in your pocket.
- Curious - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 7:42 am:
Sanjay: That isn’t MY hand in my pocket.
- TTWSYF - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 7:48 am:
Gov. Quinn & Sanjay Jha explain the positive side of the unemployment figures.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 7:51 am:
Jha: Nope. Can’t do it. I’ve tried and tried, but I can only do a proper Vulcan salute with my left hand, which means, ironically: “I will live long and prosper, you will suffer.”
- OneMan - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 8:09 am:
Pat Quinn thinking…
“He hasn’t mentioned Lincoln once, how can this guy run a major company with deficiencies like that?”
- Springfield Skeptic - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 8:21 am:
Rich, how can you call yourself a true Vulcan if you can only do the salute with one hand?
- Michelle Flaherty - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 8:29 am:
Bill, I believe The Replacements said it best:
The rich are getting richer
The poor are gettin’ drunk
as for the picture caption:
Quinn: Gov. Pat Quinn laments the one day this year he didn’t wear his purple striped tie.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 8:43 am:
The State Farm/Supremes suit is fascinating. What explosive charges.
Basically, they’re saying that the judge sold his robe for $2.5 million, and State Farm came out $1 billion ahead.
That sure beats anything that Ryan or Blago ever dreamed up. Fitz, you gonna make a couple phone calls on this one?
- MrJM - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 8:52 am:
AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!
– MrJM
- OneMan - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 8:54 am:
Pat Quinn: It that a buffet back there?
- MrJM - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 9:03 am:
From the Tribune:
If the State Farm suit isn’t a “Holy Profanity!” story now, it could certainly develop into one very, very shortly.
– MrJM
- Dirty Red - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 9:12 am:
Governor, don’t feel like you or your staff have to sign-up for international cell phone coverage. The lieutnent governor can run things for a while. Good ol’….umm….wait, it’ll come to me…..what was her name again? Haven’t seen much of her since the campaign…
- JustMe - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 9:16 am:
PQ: $67.5 m is small change! I’m getting twice as much from Madigan to trash the Illinois government and economy so Lisa can ride in on her white horse and save us all.
- Joe from Joliet - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 9:19 am:
J. - No, no, really. $67 million dollars is too much.
Q. - Think of how “managers” I could hire with that amount of money. Sigh.
- reformer - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 9:52 am:
Sanjay: “Rapidly growing economic inequality? We don’t worry about that in this great country, where a CEO is free to earn hundreds of times more than the poor slobs who work for him and whose benefits he cuts.”
- Truthteller - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 10:13 am:
According to the May 22nd Chicago Tribune, Motorola Mobility paid Mr. Jha, its CEO, $12,312, 000 last year.
Yet our political leaders keep filling up the corporate cup every time a CEO shakes one.
Meanwhile while handouts go to the truly greedy, the truly needy, the sick, the elderly, and the disabled get their benefits cut.
- SportShoz - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 10:22 am:
Wow! ComEd says its not their fault people loss power when the sun is out. The SB1652 “Rate Hike” bill seems to be ComEd’s only response to everything. What a broken record.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 11:23 am:
Nice tie Sanjay. I’ve got one just like it.
- D.P. Gumby - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 11:56 am:
Sanjay: “No, I declined Gov. Quinn’s offer to be Deputy Governor. I’m not worried about being unemployed even in this tight job market.”
- Judgment Day - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 12:48 pm:
Re: Sanjay Jha’s golden parachute.
What this really tells us is exactly how much Google wants to (more like: “has to”) acquire Motorola Mobility.
In the game being played out starting with this buyout, $65.7 mil is chump change. It’s just part of the cost of making the deal.
Google gets the deal done, they have ‘bought’ the necessary patent protection for Android (and all their Android OS partners), and acquired the Motorola license deal with what used to be Sun Microsystems (now part of Oracle) for Java, so now that set of lawsuits are called into question. And in terms of any future patent ‘wars’, Google just went from an also ran to big dog status.
Don’t got to like it, but those costs are just part of the game.
FWIW, there’s talk that Sanjay Jha has a good reputation in the tech biz and supposedly Google considers him to be a real asset, so the pot likely gets sweetened to keep him around.
- Team Sleep - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 1:47 pm:
I don’t want to post a funny caption. This makes me sick. This is one of many reasons why I am vehemently opposed to massive mergers such as Google-Motorola and AT&T-T-Mobile. Motorola will probably suffer some personnel losses when Google takes over and this guy will walk away with a payout larger than some mid-level corporations’ annual profit postings.
- Shore - Thursday, Sep 15, 11 @ 1:55 pm:
these trips are part of government business and necessary. There are things you can’t do from a desk in Illinois and need to go out and meet people and see and do.