AIG Isn't Just Wasting Its Money on Big Bonuses
AIG has sparked quite the scandal in recent days for paying out $165 million in bonuses even after accepting more than $150 billion in assistance from the U.S. government. Execs at the insurance giant maintain the company is legally bound to follow through with the payments since the bonuses were incorporated into contracts it signed last year. But that's not the only legal agreement that has AIG wasting its cash: The company continues to pay for the privilege of stamping its logo on the jerseys worn by Manchester United players, too.
In 2006, the insurance giant signed a four-year deal with the British team worth £80 million. (That's $112 million at today's exchange rate.) Although the company announced in January that it had no plans to renew the contract, it didn't say it planned to back out of it either, which means an additional £20 million ($28 million) of American taxpayer money will likely be handed over to the team before the deal comes to a conclusion in May 2010. Presumably, much like the bonus payouts, the sponsorship agreement with Manchester United leaves little room for AIG to walk away from the deal. To find out for sure, we called over to AIG to ask if the company had given any consideration to terminating the sponsorship before it's up in 2010. Not surprisingly, our call was not returned.
But there is some good news! If protesters need a prop to take with them to the handful of AIG demonstrations planned, picking up a few AIG jerseys on Ebay and then burning them in front of the TV cameras should work nicely.
