As reported by the Silicon Alley Insider, Monster halted trading yesterday because it had to release a note concerning Q1 operating expenses that “appear to exceed the current analysts’ consensus expense levels.” The roughly $330M in operating expenses, purportedly relating to compensation and a big branding campaign, equals the previous 2 quarters combined! That’s some highly gluttonous executive compensation, especially for a company that saw about half its market cap get obliterated in 2007.
No wonder the stock is still getting pounded.