Michael Ovitz

Re “Ovitz to Leave Disney After Rocky Year as President,” Dec. 13: It will be interesting if the $90-million severance package that Michael Ovitz “earned” for 14 months of work will come out of [Disney Chairman] Michael Eisner’s next enormous bonus. Or, is this yet another example of no-fault management so prevalent in American business?

One wonders why someone is paid $90 million if the unidentified source in the article is correct when he stated entertainment executives are “deified more than they should be when the truth is one management guy doesn’t make that much difference.” I trust we won’t have to wait long to see the tawdry sequel to “Two Michaels and a Company.”

CHRIS WILLIG

Agoura

* What a contrast! Disney rewards Ovitz with an estimated $90 million for leaving after a year of employment and poor performance, while Kingston Technologies rewards its loyal and hard-working employees with $100 million in bonuses, generously sharing windfall profits (Dec. 15).

This points up the difference between a company that sells family values and one that practices them. A welcome holiday lesson for the boardrooms and living rooms of America from immigrant entrepreneurs David Sun and John Tu of Kingston.

ARTHUR J. OLSON

Del Mar

* The closing of hundreds of branches by the Bank of America (Dec. 13) and the Ovitz $90-million bailout share a common denominator. We only need to look at our neighbors to the south to see what happens when the middle class is decimated.

GARY A. SMITH

Santa Barbara

* Isn’t it fascinating! Ovitz is eased out at Disney for his failure to find a niche for himself, and is rewarded with $90 million-plus.

And yet, the Disney Concert Hall, which could do so much to enlarge the cultural horizons of Los Angeles and all of Southern California, languishes in limbo because of the lack of about half that amount to see the project through.

LAWRENCE D. LONGO