American Airlines, US Air merger approved From:AFP March 28, 2013 9:56AM A US bankruptcy court judge has approved the merger of American Airlines and US Airways, which will create the country's largest airline, a spokesman for American's corporate parent AMR Corp says. But the judge left undecided the $US19.9 million ($19m) payout planned for AMR chief executive Tom Horton, who will lose his job in the merger. The judge "has approved moving on with the merger", spokesman Casey Norton said. However, as for Mr Horton's severance, "he wants to consider it at a later time", Mr Norton said. Some American Airlines creditors have reportedly raised objections to the payout as the company emerges from bankruptcy restructuring. The combined airline, to keep the American Airlines name, is to be led by current US Airways chief executive Doug Parker.
One way or another, Horton will get paid. At least, he'd better. He deserves every penny he can get for having to put up with Dougie's antics and the sabotage of the AA unions.
I'd be more than happy to put up with "antics" for considerably less than $20 million (not that I'd be qualified). That's more money than 99.9% of the world will have to their names in a lifetime, and anyone who's breathing the rarified air at that level is surely privileged, and should be happy to collect paychecks like that, or get out of the way for someone who is, "antics" or no, regardless of a $20 million golden parachute, or one that's considerably smaller but still quite lucrative.
Until the world decides that executive compensation should not be exponentially higher than that of the front line - middle manager, they should just pay the man what is likely contractually owed.
I'm not sure that it's "the world" that decides. For one thing, the multiplier of pay of top company managers versus lower levels is significantly higher in the U.S. than other major countries. For another, the executive compensation system is designed to inflate top-level pay, with interlocking compensation boards that have a vested interest in higher pay. There's not much opportunity for "the world" to weigh in. Even shareholders don't have any real influence; in theory they can replace the board, but in reality that's extraordinarily difficult.
Indeed, misleadingly, the public thinks it's all a go but both companies need further board approval on various elements as well as the DOJ and other steps we know not.
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