Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/1999/06/04/bt_boss_gets_2/

BT boss gets £725,000 bonus for failing to buy MCI

Nice work if you can get it

By Pete Sherriff

Posted in On-Prem, 4th June 1999 10:16 GMT

BT chief exec Peter Bonfield has seen his pay rise by just eight per cent over last year, but when you're getting the kind of wedge he's on, that means quite a few extra greenbacks. With bonuses included, PB trousered a whopping £2.5 million -– that's eight pence a second -– in the last 12 months. But somewhat perversely, £725,000 of that was a bonus paid for Bonfield's embarrassing failure to buy out US rival MCI last year when relative minnow Worldcom snaffled MCI out from under telecomm behemoth BT's nose. Now look here, chaps, it may have escaped your notice, but we here at Team Register also failed to buy MCI last year, so can we please have a large bonus too? With BT profits up 30 per cent to £4.3 billion, we know you can afford it. ®