Published March 11, 2009

Las Vegas Sands' president loses dogfight, quits

He cites differences with boss Adelson who 'wanted more day-to-day control'

By ARTHUR SIM
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(SINGAPORE) LAS Vegas Sands (LVS) hot-shot William Weidner has left the company developing the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort under an apparent cloud.

Mr Weidner: Last November, he said the board took too long to inject new capital into the company, which he called a 'monumental screw-up'

According to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, the LVS board met the-then company president and chief operating officer on March 4 and told him he would be replaced.

LVS said in the filing that it tried to negotiate departure terms with Mr Weidner for several days but could not reach agreement.

Mr Weidner then resigned on March 8. In his resignation letter he said he 'has had, and continued to have, outstanding differences with the chairman and chief executive officer about the management of the company'.

Charismatic billionaire Sheldon Adelson is the chairman and CEO of LVS.

'He's the CEO, he's the majority owner, and just recently he's insisted on having more control over the day-to-day operations, and I figured it was time for me to then move on.'
- Mr Weidner on disagreements and conflicts between him and chairman Sheldon Adelson

Separately, in a phone interview with Bloomberg yesterday, Mr Weidner said: 'Last year, with falling stock prices and worsening global economic conditions, disagreements and conflicts arose between me and the chairman, Sheldon Adelson.

'He's the CEO, he's the majority owner, and just recently he's insisted on having more control over the day-to-day operations, and I figured it was time for me to then move on.'

Mr Weidner, who was with LVS for almost 14 years, will be replaced by Michael Leven, a veteran hospitality executive who has been on the LVS board since 2004.

Problems began to surface last year in October when LVS said it would form an executive committee to exercise the powers of the board in between scheduled board meetings, 'including the power to resolve disagreements among management'.

LVS said: 'The board of directors adopted these measures to address governance concerns raised by senior management members, address a number of outstanding differences between our chief executive officer and other senior management members and in response to a loss of confidence by certain senior management members in the management of the company and our governance process.'

Referring to the differences as 'a junkyard dogfight' in November, Mr Weidner is reported to have said the board took too long to inject new capital into the company, which he called a 'monumental screw-up'.

Mr Weidner's comments came after LVS's auditor said in a regulatory filing in early November 2008 that it had doubts about the company's ability to continue as a going concern.

LVS has since raised US$2.1 billion of capital, with Mr Adelson and his family investing more than US$1 billion in the company.

In an interview with Newsweek recently, asked if the casino business was 'hurting him', Mr Adelson said: 'I'm still solvent - I've got a US$5 billion net worth, which seems like a lot to me. I know a billion doesn't buy what it used to, but it's still a lot of money.'

Marina Bay Sands is scheduled to open around end-2009. It said recently it expects to offer 4,500 rank-and-file and supervisory gaming jobs in areas such as table games, slots, casino finance, player development and surveillance. It also said that so far about 1,300 people have been short-listed for non-gaming jobs.