NYTimes CEO to take $15 million exit package

The golden goodbye has not gone away.

Just last week, Léo Apotheker was shown the door after a tumultuous 11-month run atop Hewlett-Packard. His reward? $13.2 million in cash and stock severance, in addition to a sign-on package worth about $10 million, according to a corporate filing on Thursday.

At the end of August, Robert P. Kelly was handed severance worth $17.2 million in cash and stock when he was ousted as chief executive of Bank of New York Mellon after clashing with board members and senior managers. A few days later, Carol A. Bartz took home nearly $10 million from Yahoo after being fired from the troubled search giant.

A hallmark of the gilded era of just a few short years ago, the eye-popping severance package continues to thrive in spite of the measures put in place in the wake of the financial crisis to crack down on excessive pay.

Critics have long complained about outsize compensation packages that dwarf ordinary workers’ paychecks, but they voice particular ire over pay-for-failure. Much of Wall Street and corporate America has shifted a bigger portion of pay into longer-term stock awards and established policies to claw back bonuses. And while fuller disclosure of exit packages several years ago has helped ratchet down the size of the biggest severance deals, efforts by shareholders and regulators to further restrict payouts have had less success.

OK now I've seen it all. Someone (who shall remain nameless for the time being) has no argument so they claim to have defeated someone's argument but their explanation for how their argument defeats the other person's is: "You're too stupid to understand so I won't bother wasting my time trying". So in other words, this person has no argument (at least not until they decide to explain it in terms we common idiots can understand). Glad we cleared that up.

OK now I've seen it all. Someone (who shall remain nameless for the time being) has no argument so they claim to have defeated someone's argument but their explanation for how their argument defeats the other person's is: "You're too stupid to understand so I won't bother wasting my time trying". So in other words, this person has no argument (at least not until they decide to explain it in terms we common idiots can understand). Glad we cleared that up.

Really? So suddenly $15million isn't excessive? If it was a FOX news executive, would you be saying the same?

And this is really what we couldn't figure out from your initial post? That since there was a more excessive bonus, the $15 million is not excessive?

I'm surprised anybody here is questioning my supposed "rant".

Well now if you didn't expect people to question your rant why would this be in the podium?

Is $15 million considered excessive?

btw - I love ranting about liberal hypocrisy and double standards. It's one of my favorite past times. Do as I say, not as I do....

Of course it is excessive. But why are you surprised people are questioning you is my question. Today it is a liberal taking a lot of money and you point out the hypocrisy in that. Tomorrow there will be a conservative who will promote equal opportunity while enjoying luxuries achieved through unequal opportunities and someone else points out the hypocrisy in that. I don't get it really what all this is supposed to achieve.

Is $15 million considered excessive?

You might want to mention that she worked there for 28 years and 15 million pension for 28 years of work for a CEO is pretty reasonable. (That's about 1/2 mil per year of work) Heck there are CEO's that didn't even work a year and drove their company in the ground and got a bigger golden parachute.

15 million pension for 28 years on the job is excess? I don't think so... Most liberals I know don't mind their bosses making more, just not a amazing huge amount.

If it was a 15 million dollar bonus when the company was loosing money, or had just laid off 1/2 its' staff then I would be up in arms.

I don't know where you think liberals want everyone to earn the same, or have the same things. Do you guys get a secret conservative newsletter or something?

Most of the complaints I see by liberals are executives getting huge bonuses after they lay off a bunch of people, or the workers take pay cuts..