36 million dollars paid to leaving management team despite heavy losses

[Millet]

The annual report that Chiquita banana presented to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that Chiquita  registered losses last year of $62.5 million dollars. Details about the compensation package given to the leaving management team members were also in the annual report. Ed Lonergan, departing CEO, received a total of $16.2 million . Overall, 36 million dollars were paid to the seven former Chiquita executives as they were let go. Interim CEO Brian Kocher could receive up to $7.6 million for his services while  the company looks for a permanent CEO.
 
Millet - PERSONAL NOTE: Wonder why Chiquita is losing money???

[fisherking73]

I have never understood big company math...........you do a crappy job, get a big severance package and a house in Rio. My job, I just get fired............

[From the sea]

That's what you call failing up bubba. 

[fisherking73]

You suck! Heres 36 million, go away! LOL

[KarenRei]

Such termination packages are pre-negotiated. They're part of the executives' "salaries". It's not like they're leaving and someone suddenly decided to give them more money   

[Bob407]

Nice incentive to do a "good" job.

[Tropheus76]

I am in the wrong line of work. If I get fired they pay back my sick and vaca time and if Im lucky they hold the door on the way out.

[zands]

Such termination packages are pre-negotiated. They're part of the executives' "salaries". It's not like they're leaving and someone suddenly decided to give them more money   

Not pre-negotiated in the normal sense. The fix is in with his friends on the board etc etc   If I smoothed the way for such a golden parachute I would demand a generous kickback deposited off shore or Iceland.
And I am sure such shenanigans take place sometimes

[ClayMango]

I'm sure just about every Corporate exec high on the totem pole all have nice contracts which safeguard them in these kind of situations which include high payouts and benefits. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.   

[Future]

Meanwhile, major damage done to economically developing places where they are industrially grown

http://community.plu.edu/~bananas/social/home.html

[KarenRei]

Such termination packages are pre-negotiated. They're part of the executives' "salaries". It's not like they're leaving and someone suddenly decided to give them more money   

Not pre-negotiated in the normal sense. The fix is in with his friends on the board etc etc   If I smoothed the way for such a golden parachute I would demand a generous kickback deposited off shore or Iceland.
And I am sure such shenanigans take place sometimes

Where's your documentation that this is what happened?  These sort of things are typically prenegotiated; they come as part of the executive compensation package. If the company tried to back out on it the exec could take them to court.

My father is a major exec; he has in his current and his previous job these sort of agreements in them. It's not something he even had to request, they're just a pretty standard part of what companies offer to execs to give them job security so they feel more comfortable taking  up the position (there's a lot of competition over high-level execs). Not saying that's a good thing, just how it is.

[fruitlovers]

Golden parachutes are usually only part of employment contracts in case of change of ownership or takeovers, NOT when people are fired.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_parachute
There was a big stink about this practice of rewarding people right before companies collapse and are bailed out by the government. So all of these multi million dollar golden parachutes were in fact paid by the tax payers. This happened quite a few times during 2008 economic melt down.

[zands]

Such termination packages are pre-negotiated. They're part of the executives' "salaries". It's not like they're leaving and someone suddenly decided to give them more money   

Not pre-negotiated in the normal sense. The fix is in with his friends on the board etc etc   If I smoothed the way for such a golden parachute I would demand a generous kickback deposited off shore or Iceland.
And I am sure such shenanigans take place sometimes

Where's your documentation that this is what happened?  These sort of things are typically prenegotiated; they come as part of the executive compensation package. If the company tried to back out on it the exec could take them to court.

My father is a major exec; he has in his current and his previous job these sort of agreements in them. It's not something he even had to request, they're just a pretty standard part of what companies offer to execs to give them job security so they feel more comfortable taking  up the position (there's a lot of competition over high-level execs). Not saying that's a good thing, just how it is.

A slight misunderstanding here. Your father had a normal honest pre-negotiated severance package. No skullduggery here.

But the outrageous ones we all have seen through the years including the one above.
Many times there is some legal criminality involved with the board "pre-negotiating" these packages for their buddies and friends. What? You think this never goes on? It goes on all the time. Do you know what a sweetheart labor contract is? Same thing but going on in the executive offices of major corporations. I will be amazed if bribes and kickbacks are not involved some of the time

@fruitlovers     The wikipedia entry also mentions what I referred to as a golden paarchute

[Millet]

First Chiquita lost $62 million due to inept management.  After paying off the "management" to go away Chiquita is now in the hole  $98 million. My wife purchased some Chiquita bananas at the market today, so I hope that helps them out - Millet

[KarenRei]

Golden parachutes are usually only part of employment contracts in case of change of ownership or takeovers, NOT when people are fired.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_parachute
There was a big stink about this practice of rewarding people right before companies collapse and are bailed out by the government. So all of these multi million dollar golden parachutes were in fact paid by the tax payers. This happened quite a few times during 2008 economic melt down.

You can define "golden parachute" however you want, and declare whether this is a golden parachute however you want, but I'm just going to tell you, it's perfectly normal for executives to have delayed compensation of various forms, and one of those forms is that which comes when they are let go from their position. There can be conditions attached, but it's not unusual to have payments in the contract that are no conditions attached.  Call it whatever you want, golden parachute or not. Nobody ever writes the words "golden parachute" into a contract. It's just part of their contracted compensation for working the job, the severance package. And whatever the contract says when they were given the job is not optional, the company legally has no choice but to follow through on it.

I don't know whether these people were friends with the exec or not and whether personal connections influenced the contracting when they were hired. And I don't think anyone else here knows that either.

I don't like how the market works, in that everyone fights over execs with these sickeningly over-generous compensation packages. I want to see governments do more to remedy this problem, to improve income equality and fairness. But the fact is, execs are fought over. The difference between a good experienced exec and an inexperienced one who's going to make bad decisions can mean the difference between growing the business by orders of magnitude or it going on its head. A company tossing millions of dollars around trying to attract someone who they think even *might*  be better than someone else who would take a lower salary, that's a decision made perfectly logically given the stakes, which can be in the billions. The people trying to attract / choose the best execs can be wrong, of course - but they try to be right, because there's a lot of money wrapped up in the consequences.

 And fighting over execs means all sorts of crazy perks that regular employees could only dream of. One of those types of perks is severance packages.

[starling1]

Such termination packages are pre-negotiated. They're part of the executives' "salaries". It's not like they're leaving and someone suddenly decided to give them more money   

Not pre-negotiated in the normal sense. The fix is in with his friends on the board etc etc   If I smoothed the way for such a golden parachute I would demand a generous kickback deposited off shore or Iceland.
And I am sure such shenanigans take place sometimes

Where's your documentation that this is what happened?  These sort of things are typically prenegotiated; they come as part of the executive compensation package. If the company tried to back out on it the exec could take them to court.

My father is a major exec; he has in his current and his previous job these sort of agreements in them. It's not something he even had to request, they're just a pretty standard part of what companies offer to execs to give them job security so they feel more comfortable taking  up the position (there's a lot of competition over high-level execs). Not saying that's a good thing, just how it is.

yes. These are commonly referred to as 'golden Handshake' clauses. Pretty much all big deal execs will have these written into their contracts.

[Millet]

More key executives exit Chiquita (More goodbye payoffs)

Executives continue to leave the Plaza offices of Chiquita Banana International Inc. three months after Cutrale-Safra purchased the company.

Last week, interim CEO Brian Kocher was dismissed and stands to receive $7.2 million in severance, a payment triggered by change-in-control provisions for the company, according to a federal Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Joseph Johnson, Chiquita chief accounting officer, resigned effective April 17.

Six C-level executives at Chiquita have departed during the last three months. CEO Ed Lonergan left in January. Also gone are CFO Rick Frier; Kevin Holland, chief people officer; and James Thompson, general counsel.

The leadership of the still-Charlotte-based company is now apparently split between two new Chiquita employees. Since January, Andrew Biles, formerly of Dole Europe, has led the Chiquita’s banana and pineapple businesses.

In March, the company announced that Kenneth Diveley is the new CEO of its Fresh Express and Chiquita fresh solutions businesses. Diveley came from his own consulting company but is a veteran of PepsiCo International and Tropicana.

Chiquita has appointed Darcilo Santos as its new CEO. Santos comes from Safra Bank in Sao Paulo.

Meanwhile, Fyffes plc and Chiquita paid advisers a hefty $15.5 million in the unsuccessful $1 billion deal for Chiquita to buy Fyffes, according to an Irish Times newspaper report. Chiquita shareholders rejected that plan.

Cu