Fired HP CEO gets to leave with $25 million

HP's newly fired CEO Leo Apotheker gets to leave with a golden parachute.

Spending just 11 months on the job, Apotheker gets to walk away with $25 million in severance, in addition to his $1.2 million salary and $4 million signing bonus. The CEO made about $100,000 per day while losing the company $20 billion in market value.

The golden parachute will be $7 million in cash and $18 million in stock options that vest immediately and leave him in charge of 800,000 shares of HP.

Former CEO Mark Hurd, who was fired last year after a sex scandal, was given severance pay of $12.2 million and was eligible for up to $53 million but he instead took a job with Oracle.

The HP board of directors just signed former eBay CEO Meg Whitman on as new CEO.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 23 Sep 2011 23:10

KillerBug

$25 million may sound like a lot, but if it got him out one day sooner, then the golden parachute paid for itself...HP has lost an average of 60 million dollars a day since he took over.

23.9.2011 23:20 #1

llongtheD

Wow, it seems these corporations are just as bad at picking CEO's as they are picking the puppets they put in Washington. Lose 20 billion for the company, make 25 million for yourself. Sounds like a familiar tale.

If your fish seems sick, put it back in the water.

23.9.2011 23:34 #2

DVDBack23

Originally posted by llongtheD: Wow, it seems these corporations are just as bad at picking CEO's as they are picking the puppets they put in Washington. Lose 20 billion for the company, make 25 million for yourself. Sounds like a familiar tale. This is the worst one ever: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16451112/ns...nardelli-quits/

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24.9.2011 00:48 #3

vert

wish i could start over again so i can be a crappy ceo just one time. 25 million is all i would need

Richard M. Morris

24.9.2011 01:28 #4

jackalguy

All the while laying off hundreds and hundreds of employees. How many salaries in R&D at HP could that 25 mil pay? How many buildings for R&D? How many raises? How many health insurance packages for grunts? You get the idea... Lets reward failure, makes a lot of sense. And we wonder why economic demand is stagnant, because all the money goes to those that don't need it, rather than those that would spend it.

"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one"

-George Bernard Shaw

24.9.2011 01:31 #5

KillerBug

They are not rewarding failure...they are paying him to go away, money well spent IMHO. It was hiring him and letting him stay on for 11 months that was dumb.

24.9.2011 03:06 #6

xboxdvl2

i kinda agree with KB they find someone better that will increase profit and decrease loss they will make the 25million back plus some.

i dont see the point in giving him any money cause he obviously failed.im sure theres some contract in place to make sure he gets severance pay otherwise they would of just fired him and gave him nothing.

R.I.P. mr 1990 ford falcon.got myself a 1993 toyota corolla seems to run good.computers still going good.

24.9.2011 03:29 #7

Royjacobs

getting $25 million to leave.
What's the sense behind this....?

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24.9.2011 03:55 #8

LordRuss

Wait a minute... Anyone else that gets fired would actually have to wait 90 days before they could even get unemployment benefits & this douche bag gets 25 mill? A sharp kick to the nuts, twist about face to the the door & his ass kicked through it is what he should have gotten. Paid to leave my bunched up colon!

This reverse psychology for elitist alphabet job positions is indeed class warfare. Individuals every quarter have to undergo gut wrenching scrutiny of their job performance & deal with the underhanded BS that their supervisor hands out in order to justify NOT giving them a raise for the the umpteenth time so should it be for these bastards.

He got fired. I.e., burn his ass. No money honey.

http://onlyinrussellsworld.blogspot.com

24.9.2011 16:43 #9

KillerBug

Originally posted by LordRuss: Wait a minute... Anyone else that gets fired would actually have to wait 90 days before they could even get unemployment benefits Not in the high-level corporate world...everyone has contracts with severance clauses, mostly aimed at preventing people from going over to the competition with a head full of company secrets. Often you can't fire someone or even relieve them of duty without waiting to the end of the contract or getting them to agree to it in writing...and the best way to get them to do this is usually to write a check.

The last company I was with had a setup like this...it was because my job was highly specialized, and it would have taken at least a month to get someone else in there and accustomed to policies and systems...and that is assuming they found a perfect candidate with the correct degree on the first day of searching. Because of this, if I had quit on them, the company would have come to a grinding halt a few days later and they would have lost millions of dollars. Because of this, there was a 45-day notice of termination clause, and it was written both ways...they couldn't fire me without 45 days notice, I couldn't quit without 45 days notice. When the company was bought by a french firm who just wanted the name, patents, and sales people, everything I did became redundant overnight. They could have paid me to keep working another 45 days, but we came to an agreement that allowed me to get about 3 weeks pay and still go out and find a new job the next day...so the next day I had a new job and a bunch of extra cash.

25.9.2011 01:17 #10

LordRuss

@KB... I can see where that works for someone that actually busts their ass for a living and tries to be a functioning part of society, but this douche bag...? You got your salary for 3 weeks, this guy got the purchase price for a professional ball teem!

Give this idiot his salary for the same 3 weeks like you got. Although, seeing as he got fired any kind of special dispensation shouldn't be seen over the top of that anyway. Torrential lawsuits from hell should pour upon him if anything come from corporate espionage occurring after the proposed 1 to 2 year silence agreement contract be breached whether he's fired or not.

But, then I was never offered such a contract from within these kind of organizations. Mine were all non disclosure statements from entertainment clauses and the government.

http://onlyinrussellsworld.blogspot.com

25.9.2011 16:29 #11

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