‘Heeere’s Steve’
The Wynn Resorts’ quarterly earnings conference call Tuesday took on the guise of a television talk show. At times, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Steve Wynn seemed to be channeling the late Merv Griffin.
During the unscripted hourlong call, Wynn called upon a panel of company executives to discuss business in Las Vegas and Macau and the prospects for an economic turn-around. He posed questions to his employees and conducted interviews.
At one point, it seemed that Chief Financial Officer Matt Maddox was ready to talk about his latest movie.
Most gaming companies have two or three speakers on their conference calls, such as the CEO and the CFO.
Wynn did the bulk of the talking. But also joining him were resort presidents Andrew Pascal (Wynn Las Vegas and Encore) and Ian Coughlan (Wynn Macau); Maddox; Linda Chen, president of Wynn International marketing; Scott Peterson, CFO of Wynn Las Vegas; and former Golden Nugget owner Tom Breitling, who is Wynn Resorts’ senior vice president of strategy and development.
All the conference call needed was Doc Severinsen and "The Tonight Show" orchestra.
"I know we don’t have scripted meetings in this company and we don’t have scripted calls," Wynn said to no one in particular. "So, asking my colleagues questions and sharing with those of you who are listening, both our competitors and our investors, is, I still think, a healthy thing to do."
Maybe, while conducting the call, Wynn was thinking about the episode of the hit television series, "Seinfeld," where Kramer turned his apartment living room into a television talk show studio after he found the set for the "Merv Griffin Show" in the trash.
