Home Depot Inc

Home Depot Inc. announced Monday that it was closing its 34 upscale Expo and other home specialty centers and laying off 7,000 people as a result of the crumbling U.S. housing market and worldwide economic downturn. The company said it would close its 34 sprawling Expo Design Center stores by April, including eight in Southern California, and 14 smaller stores. Some employees were stunned. "Shock. It was shock.

Corporate pay critics were prepared to cheer the abrupt departure of beleaguered Home Depot Inc. chief Bob Nardelli on Wednesday -- but then they got a look at the bill. Nardelli, who was one of the nation's best-paid chief executives, will get a severance package valued at $210 million. That dismayed some corporate watchdogs who have seen a string of departing CEOs collect high-dollar payouts in recent months.

Home Depot Inc., which ousted Chief Executive Robert Nardelli after investor criticism of his pay, tightened the approval process for future CEO compensation packages. The CEO's wages will now require the approval of two-thirds of the board's independent directors, up from 50%, Atlanta-based Home Depot said Monday in a regulatory filing. Home Depot's board awarded Nardelli $225 million in compensation during his six years running the company. He was replaced Jan. 2 by Vice Chairman Frank Blake.

A group of Home Depot Inc. shareholders tried Wednesday to block the world's largest chain of home improvement stores from paying former Chief Executive Bob Nardelli any more of his $210-million severance package. The request for a temporary restraining order was made by the shareholders as part of a previously filed lawsuit in Atlanta alleging that the company had overpaid senior executives and backdated stock options in violation of their fiduciary duties.

The Home Depot Inc. is paying new Chief Executive Frank Blake a fraction of what it paid his predecessor, Bob Nardelli, and has taken the unusual step of promising Blake no severance package if he leaves. But experts in executive compensation don't expect Wednesday's decision by the giant home improvement store chain to set a trend in corporate America, despite the ire that hefty compensation packages have drawn among investors.

Home Depot Inc.'s top lawyer and its head of personnel are leaving the company less than a month after the ouster of former Chief Executive Bob Nardelli amid investor criticism of his pay. The departures of Dennis Donovan, head of human resources, and general counsel Frank Fernandez are effective Feb. 14, Atlanta-based Home Depot said Thursday. Shares of Home Depot rose 34 cents to $41.08.

Home Depot Inc., the world's largest home improvement store chain, distanced itself further from the strategies advanced by former Chief Executive Bob Nardelli as it said Monday that it would consider shedding its division serving contractors, home builders and other business customers.

Home Depot Inc.'s new chief executive vowed Tuesday that changes are on the horizon amid a 28% drop in fourth-quarter profit, but he wasn't quite ready to give details. Shareholders will have to wait until an investor conference next week.

Home Depot Inc. said Wednesday that it would pump $2.2 billion into improving its business this year even as it expected lower earnings and slim sales growth, partly because of a continued slump in the housing sector. The operator of home-improvement centers said that for fiscal 2007 it expected sales growth in the range of flat to an increase of 2%, a decline in sales at stores open at least a year in the middle-single-digit percentages and an earnings-per-share decline of 4% to 9%.

Home Depot Inc. said directors Angelo Mozilo and Tom Ridge would step down after the company's annual meeting in May. Ridge's and Mozilo's decisions aren't tied to "any disagreement on the company's operations, policies or practices," Atlanta-based Home Depot said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Home Depot ousted former Chief Executive Robert Nardelli in January after criticism of his pay.