Sprint Nextel Chairman and CEO Gary Foresee has stepped down after two years over overseeing the $35 billion merger. The company announced that CFO Paul Saleh will fill his shoes as acting CEO while the company searches for a new leader. The news comes after both internal and external pressure for a new chief executive following the company's recent lackluster performance.

"The board's search for selecting its next chief executive will focus on candidates outside the company," said a company spokesperson. "We fully expect that the search will be concluded in a timely manner and we are focused on selecting the right candidate to guide the company to achieve its full potential. Sprint Nextel has the assets, spectrum, customer base and technology to be the leader in wireless mobility services."

Two executives at Research in Motion (RIM) will pay another $2.5 million each as part of a tentative settlement reached with one of its shareholders over the company's option granting policy. The Blackberry-maker said Friday that it had reached that agreement with the Ironworkers Ontario Pension Fund, which launched legal action earlier this year. The fund had been seeking $105 million in damages. The $2.5 million today comes on top of the $5 million they've each already agreed to repay to the company to defray its costs for conducting the investigation. The two men continue to share the title of CEO and hold significant shares, but stepped down as Chairman of the Board.

Cisco Systems Chief Executive, Jonathan Chambers, took home a pay package for 2007 valued at $12.8 million. The executive also pocketed more than $50 million in stock options as the company's stock continues to outperform the market. Shareholders have nothing to complain about, however. Chambers took over as CEO in 1995 when the company had about 4,000 employees and less than $2 billion in sales; the company now has about 61,500 employees worldwide and $34.92 billion in revenue in 2007.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has a new target since enforcement chief Linda Chatman Thomsen revamped regulations regarding stock-trading plans for corporate executives, compensation experts, corporate counsel and brokerages. On October 10th, Thomsen will review the current 10b5-1 trading plans that many believe are flawed. Many are speculating that this move will uncover a whole new set of executives that were potentially insider trading - a number that could reach into the hundreds if not thousands of executives according to many lawyers.

“The idea [of the original rule] was to give executives a safe harbor to proceed with these prearranged trades.... However, recent academic studies suggest that the rule is being abused,” Ms. Thomsen said in remarks at the Corporate Counsel Institute in March. “If executives are in fact trading on inside information and using a plan for cover, they should expect the safe harbor to provide no defense.”

Microsoft Corporation's Steve Ballmer took a jab at Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's compensation in an article in The Times. Despite being a billionaire, Larry Ellison took home a pay package valued at $61.2 million and stock option gains of nearly $182 million for the year ending May 31. Meanwhile, Mr. Ballmer was not awarded any stock options and his pay and bonus totalled a mere $980,000. "I'm sort of like a parent to this little child and I'm a large stakeholder in Microsoft," Ballmer told The Times. "And I certainly feel like if I do a good job I'll be well rewarded in the appreciations of our shares."

News broke in Germany over the weekend that Chrysler President Tom LaSorda and former Chief Operating Officer Eric Ridenour were paid bonuses worth millions for their help with the sale of the automaker earlier this year. While the exact amounts of these bonuses are unknown, Erich Klemm - a German labor representative on DaimlerChrysler AG's supervisory board - called them "unreasonably high". This situation begs the question as to whether executives that take positions in troubled companies deserve greater compensation in line with greater job risk. Many companies in hard times are cutting employee compensation and benefits while hiring a high-calibur exeuctive to try and turn it around. Is this trade worth it in the long-run for all parties involved?

Executive compensation is set to rise over 16% during 2007, according to a study conducted by accounting firm KPMG. This rise marks an acceleration from last year's 9% rise and causes greater concern for many shareholders and watchgroups that have been protesting excess compensation and perks.

"Indeed, an interesting phenomenon in the data this year is that among FTSE-100 companies operating share option plans, the grant levels are greater than the normal grant limits, indicating that companies may be using the exceptional circumstances' clauses typical in many plans, and perhaps also the influence of some uncapped plans," said Mary Carter, a partner at KPMG. "This has led to the median actual grant being higher than the median maximum grant opportunity for both FTSE-100 chief executives and FTSE-100 finance directors."

Microsoft Corporation's (NDAQ:MSFT) Steve Ballmer is set to receive $1.28 million in total compensation for the most recent fiscal year, which includes an 86 percent increase in his bonus. The Schedule 14A proxy statement indicates that the Microsoft executive will receive a $650,000 bonus compared to $350,000 last year. Meanwhile, his salary stayed almost the same at $620,000 with an additional $10,000 in benefits-related compensation.

Interestingly, chairman Bill Gates no longer appears on Microsoft's proxy statements as he is no longer one of the three highest paid executives at Microsoft. The company noted that his pay is "substantially less" than those reported in the company's proxy.