Appeared on February 19, 2013
New finance research suggests that CEO merger bonus payouts may not be all that shady: bonuses tend to be paid only in low-synergy transactions involving less-desirable companies that may not otherwise be sold, or to compensate CEOs for the fact they're likely to lose their current job.
“There is always this cynical view of CEOs and CEO compensation. We’re actually coming at it from a different side of the” equation, says Eliezer Fich, Ph.D., associate professor or finance and a co-author of this research study.