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The Agee-Eklund connection

Bendix Corp. was locked in a bitter and ultimately losing takeover battle in September as company directors huddled to plot strategy. Among their hurried decisions: a so-called golden parachute for Chairman William Agee and 15 other Bendix officers. The chute, which was designed to protect the executives following a buyout by another company, guarantees Agee an $805,000 annual salary for five years even if he is fired. That lucrative arrangement was presumably authorized by the board's compensation committee and approved by the directors, as is typical in such cases. But at Bendix there was a twist. Equitable Life Chairman Coy Eklund, a Bendix director and member of its compensation committee, is partly beholden to Agee for his own $594,794 in 1981 salary and bonuses. Reason: Agee is an Equitable director and sits on its compensation committee.

Top executives often serve on the boards of one another's firms, but the Agee-Eklund compensation-committee connection raises some thorny questions. Are such overlaps in the best interest of the shareholders, for example, or are they tempting invitations to conflicts of interest? Last week neither Agee nor Eklund was willing to provide any opinions on the subject.