4 ms·

I think back to AT&T CEO John Walter who was barely at the job 11 months before he was forced out. He made a nice tidy sum of money plus a new house for his eff

I think back to AT&T CEO John Walter who was barely at the job 11 months before he was forced out. He made a nice tidy sum of money plus a new house for his efforts. " Under the terms of his contract, Walter, 50, will receive separation payments totaling about $3.8 million, AT&T said. This is in addition to the $22 million provided to replace salary, pension and bonuses Walter forfeited when he left R.R. Donnelley & Co. last October after nine years as the publishing company's CEO." article: http://money.cnn.com/1997/07/16/companies/att/ http://money.cnn.com/1997/07/16/companies/att/ article 2: http://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/17/business/after-9-months-at-t-president-quits-under-pressure.html http://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/17/business/after-9-months-at... EDIT: added another link.

rhizome 10y ago
This is in addition to the $22 million provided to replace salary, pension and bonuses Walter forfeited... Shouldn't investors at any company that does this be angry at having to reimburse executives for opportunity cost?
- phamilton 10y ago
  It's not reimburse. It's just negotiation. Why leave something near guaranteed for something uncertain? Last time I changed jobs I negotiated hard using my current situation to leverage a decent signing bonus. This is no different.
  - rhizome 10y ago
    Was your signing bonus a ~5x multiple of your annual salary? It just smells to me like the company is effectively paying for two employee positions, one at another company. Back of the napkin calc says John R. Walter's compensation + forfeited shares in 1997 added up to maybe $7MM (being generous, perhaps $10MM if he had stayed through vesting), so the reimbursement by AT&T was easily 2-3x the real-world numbers.