Leslie Moonves might lose his $180 mn golden parachute; here's what the term means
Some of the recent golden parachutes include Marissa Mayer, Sanjay Jha .
By ET Bureau |
Leslie Moonves, the departing CEO of CBS, might end up losing his payout which is worth over $180 million, if the sexual allegations against him are proven.
Meaning A ‘golden parachute’ is generally applied to a significantly large financial compensation guaranteed to a company executive in case of termination of employment because of a merger or takeover.
Origin The term was first used in 1961. Charles C Tillinghast Jr was hired as president of Trans World Airlines (TWA) and he was offered a contract with a promised payout, in case he lost his job. Control of TWA was in litigation, with creditors seeking to oust Howard Hughes from being in control.
Moonves’s parachute Moonves was supposed to get $180 million but he has announced that he will donate $20 million to organisations supporting women in the workplace.
“The donation, which will be made immediately, has been deducted from any severance benefits that may be due to Moonves following the Board’s ongoing independent investigation,” CBS announced. But the Times Up movement has asked that the entire $180 million be “used to help women”.
Former Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer left the company board in January 2017 after it was bought out by Verizon Communications for $4.8 billion. She had a bumpy run in the office with two huge data breaches. Despite this, Mayer received a cushy severance package of $23 million.
Fox News Channel’s former CEO Roger Ailes quit amid sexual misconduct allegations. He has reportedly received a compensation package of $40 million upon resignation.
Motorola Mobility Chief Executive Sanjay Jha received a $65.7 million payout, of which $13.2 million was in cash and $52.4 million was in the form of equity related compensation, in 2012 when tech giant Google bought Motorola Mobility for a reported sum of $12.5 billion.
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