Time Warner?s sell-out CEO to get $80 million

Time Warner CEO Robert Marcus will get approximately $80 million for negotiating the sale of Time Warner to rival Comcast, or about five years’ worth of his current compensation. However, Marcus only began the job at the beginning of 2014, so, according to The New York Times, he’s receiving “a severance payment that amounts to more than $1 million a day for the six weeks he ran the company before agreeing to sell.”

According to CNN Money, which viewed the merger documents, Marcus isn’t the only Time Warner manager in line to receive a multimillion dollar golden parachute:

•    $27.1 for CFO Arthur Minson
•    $16.3 chief technology officer Michael LaJoie
•    $11.7 for chief operating officer Philip Meeks

The rationale for this is “shareholders do not want executives to block a possible deal that would be good for shareholders due to concerns about how it will affect them personally.” Or, to put it more bluntly, offering executives a huge bribe not to interfere with corporate profits.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the FCC will be reviewing this deal, which will combine the largest and second largest cable and broadband companies.

$80 Million for 6 Weeks for Cable Chief (NY Times, Mar. 20, 2014)

Time Warner Cable CEO to get $80 million golden parachute (Forbes, Mar. 21, 2014)