Getting Paid (Big Time) To Quit

from the my-valuable-connections... dept

A few weeks ago, we talked about just how much money could be made getting fired if you had the right severance package. Well, it looks like some top execs at Audiovox have one-upped that plan. They're getting paid millions for quitting. Audiovox decided to get out of the wireless business, and sell it off to UTStarcom -- a deal that makes plenty of sense. However, what might not make sense is that these two top execs are getting about $2 million each because the board has decided that selling off a piece of the company represents "a change of control at the company." Of course, you can wonder why the company was paying these execs to sell off the company, or even why they're getting credit for selling off the company when they only sold off one part of the company, but the story gets more bizarre. One of the execs is getting paid $16 million for "personally held intangibles," since he's quitting the company. These personally held intangibles include "personal contacts and personal and professional relationships with suppliers, customers, contractors, financiers, employees and ex-employees of the wireless unit." Read that again. The company is paying him $16 million for the partnerships he built for the company. Isn't that his job? Apparently not. His job was to get paid (handsomely, too) while building these relationships for the company which he would get to sell back to the company after the fact. In other words, everyone who has a job anywhere, start keeping tabs on all the work you've done for your employer. When you quit, you should be able to sell back all the work you already did (which you may have thought you already got paid for), and it may be worth even more than the first time they paid you.