Mr.Bilger's example be not yet followed by his compatriot jean-marie messier , the former boss of vivendi Universal. MR.Messier is still fighting to keep the 20.5m severance package due to him after the company sack him.Yet golden parachutes and severance pay are only one part of executive compensation. share options already come under close investigation. the amounts which companies award through share options in recent years are far higher than those paid out by golden parachutes or by any other mechanism. even in 2001, after the stockmarket bubble burst,the value of stock options granted to the CEOs of the companies on standard Poor's 500 stock index risc by 43.6% in a year when the total returns from those companies fall by almost 12%
Stock options lead to angry reactions from both shareholders and the general public. last year, for example, Jeffrey barbakow, the executive of tenet healthcare, a hospital management business in Califomia, receive $111m from exercising his stock options in a year when the company's share price drop by nearly 60% after a group of shareholders led by aflorida doctor threaten to remove him, Mr.Barbakow resign last may