Headlines:
Golden Parachutes at SunGard
SunGard Data Systems Inc. of Wayne, Pa., which is spinning off much of its business, has promised golden parachutes as large as three times pay to 35 top executives.
On March 31 the company is to spin off its availability services business, which provides disaster recovery services to banks and other companies.
The golden parachute agreements would give chief executive Cristobal Conde and 13 others three times pay if they lost their jobs as late as one year plus 30 days after SunGard Data Systems changed hands. Twenty-one others would get as much as much as 2.5 times pay, under different terms.
Mr. Conde made $1.65 million in salary and bonuses in 2003. The agreements were disclosed last month in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
SunGard announced the spinoff plan in October. It roughly doubled its availability services business in the fall of 2001 by acquiring the assets of the rival Comdisco Inc., which had filed for bankruptcy.
The operations to be spun off as SunGard Availability Inc. earned $136.6 million on revenue of $866.3 million - about 40% and 32%, respectively, of the parent's totals - in the first nine months of last year, according to unaudited figures filed with the SEC.
Remaining after the spinoff would be software and financial processing businesses serving brokerage, treasury, and insurance clients, among others.
$290M Contract for Accenture
Accenture Ltd. of New York said Tuesday that it will continue to provide technology support to the $41 billion-asset Caixa Catalunya of Barcelona, Spain's third-largest savings bank, under a 10-year, $290 million outsourcing contract.
The contract covers infrastructure operations and maintenance, application maintenance, system integration, and technical help desk functions.
It will be provided through ITC, an Accenture-Caixa Catalunya joint venture that also serves other clients in Spain.
The new contract extends one signed in 1998 that was designed to increase cost efficiency while providing the savings bank with access to new technology.
