Windstream reports
'17 pay for top execs
Tony Thomas, chief executive officer of Windstream Holdings, earned $5.4 million last year, the Little Rock telecommunications company said Tuesday in its proxy statement.
Thomas was paid a $1 million salary, $3.1 million in stock awards and $1.3 million in other compensation, the proxy said.
Thomas' total pay was 73 times more than the median Windstream employee salary of $74,683, according to the proxy. The ratio, included in the proxy statement, is a requirement of the Dodd-Frank financial disclosure law.
Other top executives for Windstream and their pay last year were Robert Gunderman, chief financial officer, $2 million; John Fletcher, former general counsel, $2 million; Layne Levine, president of the enterprise and wholesale division, $2.7 million; Jeff Small, president of consumer and SMB division, $1.1 million; and Sarah Day, former president of the consumer division, $1.1 million.
Windstream will hold its annual meeting on May 21.
-- David Smith
Tyson's pizza crust
unit put up for sale
Tyson Foods said Tuesday that TNT Crust, its Wisconsin-based pizza crust business, is for sale.
Sally Grimes, group president of Tyson's Prepared Foods business, said the sale will help "pave the way for growth" in its protein and core brands portfolio.
"We believe a potential buyer will see the value of the pizza crust business as a whole," Grimes said in a news release.
The sale of TNT Crust includes the pizza crust business of partially baked crusts, flat breads and self-rising crusts as well as the company's two manufacturing facilities in Green Bay, Wis., the news release said.
Tyson plans to keep its tortilla production lines that are inside the Green Bay manufacturing facilities.
Investment bank Goldman Sachs is advising Tyson Foods on the sale.
-- Nathan Owens
State index follows
U.S. markets down
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, sank 7.34 to 401.53 Tuesday.
"The Dow Jones industrial average fell 345 points Tuesday as U.S. stocks experienced a sharp sell-off in afternoon trading, led by a downturn in tech and financial stocks," said Chris Harkins, managing director with Raymond James & Associates in Little Rock.
Total volume for the index was 21 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 03/28/2018