Franklin, Andrews, Kramer & Edelstein

[BullNBear52]

Golden parachutes
The WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann will get a huge payout as part of a deal that will give control of the co-working start-up to its Japanese investor, SoftBank — a move that some described as an enormous “golden parachute.”

The phrase dates from 1961, and initially described a contract clause designed to ensure that a top executive would get paid in the event of a corporate takeover. “Equipped with this safety device, an executive who is shoved out the door by a new owner will be cushioned by a tidy pile of cash,” the Times reporter N. R. Kleinfield wrote in 1982.


The definition has become broader over the years, and has come to mean any large corporate severance payout, especially if the executive in question has a tarnished reputation.

Where does Mr. Neumann rank in the annals of golden parachutes? It depends on how you measure his payout, which includes a line of credit and the ability to sell some of his shares to SoftBank. But the co-founder’s “consulting fee” of $185 million, on its own, ranks among the biggest corporate exit payouts ever.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/23/briefing/google-mark-zuckerberg-world-series.html?action=click&module=Briefings&pgtype=Homepage