Good piece at Citibiz List by Doug Schmidt of Chessiecap on Stanley Works' buyout of Black & Decker. He's unhappy about the deal, especially about the millions being reaped by Black & Decker CEO Nolan Archibald as well as Stanley exects: The gist:

It is clearly legal, but it is one of the seedier sides of our markets that the SEC seems powerless to expose or control. Not only will Mr. Archibald receive a bonus worth scores of millions of dollars to make this deal work, the top two Stanley executives are also issuing themselves almost 1.8 million "merger equity grants." There is something for everybody in this deal as long as you work at the top.

As Schmidt points out, it's not just lower-level Black & Decker employees who are getting the shaft. Shareholders haven't done that well, either. Nevertheless,

In addition, Mr. Archibald has enriched himself enormously in his twenty years as CEO, becoming the largest individual Black & Decker shareholder with approximately 2.5 million shares or over 4% of the total ownership. He ranks as the 7th largest institutional shareholder behind funds such as Fidelity and AllianceBernstein. Even before the incentives and pay package provided in the transaction, Mr. Archibald's current stake is worth approximately $150 million. [Emphasis Schmidt's.]

UPDATE: That didn't take long. The time stamp on this post is 12:04. At 12:30 Black & Decker spokesman Roger Young was on the line, noting that Schmidt substantially overstated Archibald's pile by saying it's worth $150 million. Young is right. Archibald controls 2.5 million Black & Decker shares, but more than 2 million shares of this are in the form of options, with strike prices varying from $30 to $92. (An option gives you only the difference between the strike and the market prices.) Today BDK stock is about $62. So the options are worth a lot less than the $60 figure Schmidt used, and some are worthless. Still, they come to many millions. At the same time, it looks like Archibald owns BDK shares worth about $11 million. In any event you don't feel sorry for him.