Verizon To Resolve SEC Dispute over Seidenberg's Pay

By Josh Long

Verizon Communications Inc. has agreed to resolve a dispute with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the pay of its former top executive, Ivan Seidenberg.

The New York-based company will recalculate Seidenberg’s compensation for 2009 and 2010 after the SEC claimed Verizon hadn’t properly disclosed discretionary grants of restricted stock that it gave to him in two previous years, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Verizon will detail another $20 million in pay for its former CEO, the Journal reported, but Seidenberg isn’t actually receiving any more compensation.

"The SEC did not suggest that anything was improper in past disclosures, but they wanted a new method of disclosure going forward," Verizon spokesman Peter Thonis told the newspaper in a statement. "We have simply complied with a reasonable request, given that all of the information we provided was accurate and transparent."

Beginning his career as a cable splicer’s assistant at New York Telephone, Seidenberg rose through the ranks to become one of the most powerful telecommunications executives of the modern age and was instrumental in transforming Verizon Communications and Verizon Wireless through mergers into the behemoths they are today.

Seidenberg stepped down as Verizon’s CEO on July 31 and resigned from the board as chairman on Dec. 31.

He brought home a generous compensation package while at the helm of Verizon. From 2006 through 2010, Seidenberg earned more than $130 million in salary, bonuses and the value of restricted stock and stock options at the time they vested, the Journal reported, citing Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ unit.