24 APR 09: Poorer and Wiser
So what do you think - did the RiverCenter give Synovus Financial a rental price break, to host Thursday's shareholders meeting? Or did one of the Synovus executives pay the bill out of his big salary?
The mood may have been on the grim side at Thursday's Synovus shareholders meeting. After all, the company had just reported its third quarterly loss in a row. Dreaming of a fourth-quarter comeback didn't work for Auburn football fans last year.
Synovus Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Anthony admitted to the evening news many shareholders are "not happy." For one thing, the company's annual report shows a net loss last year of $584 million. And imagine if Columbus had any casinos within a short driving distance....
Chairman Richard Anthony's letter in the annual report attributes much of last year's big losses to $480 million in "goodwill impairment charges." I'm not sure Goodwill Industries would want to be associated with Synovus right now, no matter what the amount.
The page of "financial highlights" also shows the number of Synovus "team members" dropped by 509 people last year. Many CB&T customers probably didn't notice this - unless they went to the bank on their lunch hour, and found only one teller on duty.
The theme for Synovus in its annual report and meeting was on an "F-word" - and perhaps surprisingly, it was NOT failure. "We're focused," says the cover of the 2008 annual report. Keep putting an attractive female employee on that cover every year, and plenty of single guys will be focused as well.
In fact, a few lines in the Synovus financial highlights give reason for shareholder optimism. The company's total assets increased by 8.2 percent last year, to nearly $36 billion. So Synovus doesn't need to put a billboard atop its headquarters and sell advertising toward the 13th Street Bridge quite yet.
Another area of focus for Synovus is efficiency. Richard Anthony writes, "We expect to implement approximately 700 ideas by late 2010." If not for what President Obama said Thursday, lower ATM fees would still be idea number 995.
But Richard Anthony fears Synovus will keep losing money for the rest of this year. That news prompted a key credit bureau to lower its rating on Synovus Thursday - and as a result, the company's stock price dropped almost 20 percent. Are any Carmike Cinemas executives still around, to help guide their neighbors through this?
Synovus may be losing money, but documents for Thursday's shareholders meeting showed Chairman Richard Anthony had compensation of almost $1.3 million last year. Before you critics say he didn't earn that large sum of money - are you buying any Mega Millions tickets today?
One Synovus "open letter" for stockholders explained Richard Anthony's compensation last year was down 61 percent from 2007. Wow -- if Anthony played major league baseball, his record still might have earned him a raise.
At least one Synovus shareholder didn't buy the corporate spin. The Ledger-Enquirer quotes him as saying Synovus needs to make changes at the top, or it will go the way of AIG. Oh goody - executives going on expensive retreats to Las Vegas.
This critic called on Synovus to expand its board of directors, and add more independent thinkers. At least half the board is made up of Columbus business executives. To look at the list, the "independent" in the bunch is that management school dean from far-northern Syracuse University.
Yet there was no shareholder revolt at the Synovus meeting. The board of directors were approved for another term. So much for the argument that Democrats are the only ones mindlessly following their leader....
-> We couldn't play poker Thursday night, but our blog about it goes on. Visit "On the Flop!" <--
E-MAIL UPDATE: Synovus has its critics, and so do we....
Richard, I was also disappointed that you talked to an ex-employee of Cable TV of East AL about the increase in basic cable rates and the distribution of The Citizen [15 Apr]. It would be much more interesting and informative to hear what the management of both have to say. And an explanation why they don't offer a senior citizen's discount like some other cable companies do.
Craig Howard (son of former mayor of Phenix City & long-time friend of owner Roy Green) was co-host along with former radio Talkline host Russ Hollenbeck of an early morning call-in talk show on Cable TV of East Alabama (7-8 a.m.) for 3-4 months. The show started with great fanfare but as soon as the hosts criticized the actions of the new Mayor of Phenix City and the new Council the plug was immediately pulled on the show. Neither the station or the newspaper gave any explanation as to why the show was pulled. Craig Howard was then out looking for another job. Russ Hollenbeck is still with ctvea, filming the various city council and county commission meetings.
And as for the newspaper subscriptions why do those who pay for cable receive the newspaper (without supposedly paying for a "subscription") and those who don't subscribe to cable don't receive it unless they pay the $20 per yr subscription price.
And remember they had a very visible billboard near the Walmart SuperCenter for months bragging about the number of subscribers to their paper. If they have so many subscriptions I wonder why they have recently cut the number of pages of the paper in half.
It certainly couldn't be because there's not enough news.
As your other e-mailer noted Mr. Green is in his 90's so he probably is not overseeing the day to day operations of either business.
To be honest, we didn't realize Craig Howard was a former employee until we called him last week. He had contacted us privately several weeks before - but now we understand why he didn't invite us to make a guest appearance on TV.
We found out Thursday Russ Hollenbeck has another role with Cable TV of East Alabama. He's the official "voice mail voice" when you call the office. Amy Overton apparently has a voice for newspapers....
As for the questions raised by this e-mailer - I'm afraid I have to disappoint again. We called Cable TV of East Alabama Thursday and left a message for a manager, but it was not returned. But you can tell the operation is run like a business - from the fact that the audio from Fox News Channel has replaced "on-hold music."
Now for a quick scan around the dial of other Thursday news....
+ The Dillingham Street Bridge reopened for drivers during the evening, after being closed part of the day. It turns out the closure was due to tornado damage on the Columbus side, as a crane was needed outside the C.S.U. Corn Center for Visual Arts. All the corn harvesting equipment apparently is busy in Florida.
+ WRBL reported Fountain City Coffee will close its shop at The Landings, and have only a single location on Broadway. There's an easy way to explain this. Visitors to The Landings who want an expensive "fix" use the drive-through lane at Buford's Brownies.
+ Wal-Mart showed off its renovation project at the Buena Vista Road store. We're told brighter paint and wider aisles are coming by June -- but NOT a Super-Center. That Winn-Dixie manager next door must have some powerful friends in Arkansas.
+ Instant Message to Al Haynes: That was you, wasn't it? The man I saw parking that fancy "95.3 The Ride" Corvette at a strip mall on Wynnton Road. The man who was supposed to be on the air at WBOJ "103.7 The Truth" when you parked that car. How are you able to sneak away for a lunch break, when John Tesh at Sunny 100 can't do it?
COMING SOON: A restaurant review that has me simply asking for trouble....
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