Golden Hellos Surge as CEOs Get Jumbo Bonuses Before Job Starts
This article is for subscribers only.
More U.S. companies are luring top executives with multimillion-dollar “golden hello” signing bonuses, undeterred even as high-profile flameouts such as Ron Johnson’s short tenure at J.C. Penney Co. expose the risks.
The number of companies making upfront payments surged to more than 70 this year from 41 in all of 2012, according to governance-advisory firm GMI Ratings Inc. J.C. Penney fired Johnson in April, 17 months after giving him a signing bonus of $52.7 million in shares to recruit him from Apple Inc.