Dear Mayne Reporters,

tonight's edition includes lively items on activist funds, excessive CEO payouts, Phil Green's Babcock resignation, the Microsoft monopolist on the ASX share register, James Packer's cynical shareholder meeting scheduling and another 15 names for The Mayne Report Rich List.

And click here to listen to an interview I just did with BBC Five Live's breakfast program on the Lehman bankruptcy, which is causing reverberations around the world. Who would have thought that rather than buying Lehman, Bank of America actually ended up bailing out Merrill Lynch in a $US50 billion deal which has just been announced.

Listen in live online to a spot on 774 ABC Melbourne with Lindy Burns at 5.20pm tonight assessing the amazing Lehman and Merrills developments.

Click through to enjoy the full edition and do ya best, Stephen Mayne

* The Mayne Report is a multi-media governance website published by Stephen Mayne with occasional email editions. To unsubscribe from the emails click here.

The AGL annual report arrived in the mail today and 10 months after he was sacked, shareholders were finally advised that Welshman Paul Anthony collected $11.26 million in 2007-08 for just 4 months work. It's the latest example of an appalling CEO payout for poor performance that wasn't revealed in a timely way.

Whenever a director quits a company, the market should be immediately advised the financial terms. And when the figure is more than $1 million, it should also require shareholder approval.

This is where Anthony ranks in my list of the most outrageous CEO payouts:

George Trumbull, AMP, $7.5m
Keith Lambert, Southcorp, $4.4m
Paul Anthony, AGL: $11.2m
Sir CK Chow, Brambles, $7.7m
Owen Hegarty, Oxiana, $10.7m
Frank Cicutto, NAB, $6.5m
David Higgins, $6.7m, Lend Lease
Dennis Eck, Coles Myer, $4.7m
Brian Gilbertson, BHP-Billiton, $10m
Peter Macdonald, James Hardie, $8.2m
Tony D'Aloisio, ASX, $7.8m

Phil Green finally quit the Babcock & Brown board today as the group spirals towards oblivion. At least the former BRW Rich Lister will be able to hold his head high and claim that he was never formally margin called whilst a director.

However, with Babcock shares down almost 40% in a week to a record low of $1.58 tonight, Green must be getting very close to those levels and can now freely sell out without the ignominy of it being made public. Similarly, the restraint of whether the share trading window is formally open for directors and executives, something it hasn't been in recent times for obvious reasons, will no longer apply.

Phil's financiers will be relieved that there is now little stopping a liquidation of his various Babcock positions. Not that they're worth much anymore.

When visiting Sydney last week, I did a search of the beneficial owners of ASX Ltd behind the nominee companies at Orient Capital and discovered that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer pops up with 18,921 shares held through Goldman Sachs.

Ballmer is a multi-billionaire, but it is amusing that one of the world's most notorious monopolists has financially backed Australia's most lucrative monopoly, which has returned almost 300-fold for any of the original 606 stockbroker members who held onto their shares since the 1998 demutualisation.

The Ballmer investment in ASX Ltd is worth $652,774 based on today's closing price of $34.50. Let's hope he's as concerned about governance standards at ASX as Risk Metrics.

James Packer's listed hedge fund Ellerston Gems is being wound up after some agitation from disaffected shareholders.

We all know that James likes to minimise numbers at his shareholder meetings, but the decision to schedule the Ellerston EGM for 4pm on Friday October 3 is very cynical.

The last well-known public company to start a meeting at 4pm on a Friday was HIH Insurance, which held its final gathering in Redfern on Friday, December 15, 2001.

And speaking of cynical AGM timing, can you believe that the two Melbourne-based major banks, NAB and ANZ, are holding their AGMs in different cities on Thursday, December 18, 2008.

We've since learnt that ANZ made some inquiries with its competitors to avoid such a clash, but then NAB changed its planned date from late January to December 18.

The tricky decision now is whether to stay in Melbourne for NAB, or fly to Brisbane for ANZ to support a board tilt if long-serving chairman Charlie Goode decides to run again.

The Mayne Report Rich List continues to grow and now features more than 1200 names. The latest edition of BRW had the richest entertainers which have produced some good new names for our list. Former BRW Rich List editor James Thomson also produced this fascinating story about AC/DC for Business Spectator.

Anyway, here are our latest additions:

Dale Alcock: Managing Director of Alcock Brown-Neaves Group (ABN Group) which operates a number of building companies in Perth including Dale Alcock Homes. Dale Alcock Homes posted a $14.7 million profit in 2006-07, with the lion's share of the profit handed back in dividends to Mr Alcock and Mr Brown-Neaves. In 2008 ABN Group purchased a magority stake in Victoria's Boutique Homes.

Eric Bana: beginning in comedy, he has branched out to become an accomplished actor with such roles as Chopper and The Incredible Hulk. He is one of Australia's most successful exports to Hollywood and has a wealth north of $15 million.

Stuart Beattie: is Australia's most successful screenwriter and with the recent Hollywood writers strike, lifted his workload to produce the blockbuster GI Joe in only seven weeks.

Garry Brown-Neaves: Director and shareholder of Alcock Brown-Neaves Group (ABN Group) which operates a number of building companies in Perth and in 2008 purchased a magority stake in Victoria's Boutique Homes. Mr Brown-Neaves and his partner Dale Alcock amassed a fortune from WA's property market.

Rhonda Byrne: producer of the hugely successful book and CD The Secret which has made more than $300 million so far.

Michael Coppel: a music promoter for the past 20 years, his company was ranked the fourth biggest concert promoters by Billboard magazine and continues to grow.

Michael Gudinski: founder of Mushroom records and the Frontier Touring Company which was ranked fifth largest concert promoter by Billboard magazine, the Mushroom juggernaut continues to grow including the film production division which was responsible for hits such as Wolf Creek and Chopper.

Greg Kirk: former CEO of the financial planning division of Challenger Financial Services, he pocketed $3.6 million in the last year which included a short term bonus of $3 million. This was awarded for his contribution to the sale of CFS financial planning division.

Julian McMahon: son of a former PM, he has gone to forge a very successful acting career in the US, and is currently working on the quirky US hit Nip/Tuck which last year earned him upward of $6 million.

Shahin family: Adelaide family with controlling interest in Peregrine Corporation, a convenience retailer and the operator of Smokemart & GiftBox retail sites across the country. As at 4 September 2008, the Shahin family is strongly tipped to be negotating to buy the Charles Street Plaza and Adelaide Central Carpark from Centro MCS 2 for $47.68 million.

Dominic Stevens: deputy CEO of Challenger Financial Services, his salary and incentives place him around our cut-off mark, but with CEO Mike Tilley resigning, his financial package will certainly increase.

Darrell Wade: co-founder of Intrepid Travel with sales of $150 million and now preparing the company for a public listing.

Leigh Whannell: as the other half of the hugely successful Saw movies, the latest installment turned over $133 million last year. Leigh began on Neighbours and has risen quickly up the Hollywood ranks.

Sam Worthington: having been a part of the Australian television scene, he is regarded as the next big thing in Hollywood. He recently signed on for the Terminator trilogy.

Gemma Ward: a highly desirable catwalk model who commands up to $200,000 a show, made more than $4 million last year and has made a successful transition into Hollywood, starring in the horror film The Strangers which has seen more than $50 million at the US box office.

Finally, I'll be giving a speech at tomorrow's Investment & Technology magazine annual absolute fund conference on the topic: Activist funds - when will they come to Australia?

As part of the preparation, I've prepared this list tracking all the hostile AGMs and resolutions that have been imposed on Australian public companies over the past two decades.

Bizarrely, there are no genuine home grown activist funds in Australia and I've flagged the idea of trying to start one or partner with an appropriate group some time in 2009-10.

It will be be interesting to hear what transpires at tomorrow's all day conference in Melbourne and drop us a line to stephen@maynereport.com if you've got any suggestions for the presentation.