From Nikesh Arora to Marissa Mayer, here are five expensive pay-outs in the biz world

By Apoorva Puranik
Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman is set to receive a whopping $72 million payoff to step down after a bitter wrangle, reminding us of these five expensive pay outs in the biz world. 

Nikesh Arora, former president, SoftBank 

Nikesh Arora's surprising decision to quit SoftBank last month did not come cheap for the Japanese tech company. According to reports, SoftBank booked ¥6.8 billion i n expenses a risi ng from Arora's resignation. That's on top of the ¥24.6 billion he received in compensation over the previous two fiscal years.The company bought back ¥10.7 billion of its own shares from Arora, who served as SoftBank's president.Arora left Soft Bank after CEO Masayoshi Son, who had called him a likely successor, decided to remain at the helm of the company he founded. 

Jeff Smisek, former CEO, United Airlines 

Despite resigning amid a federal corruption probe in 2015, the former chief executive of United Airlines received nearly $37 million in compensation, including a car, free flights and lifetime parking privileges at two major airports in the US. Smisek received a cash pay ment of nearly $5 million, which included payments for unused vacation days. Smisek stepped down after allegations of the airline trading favours with the head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. 

Martin Winterkorn, former CEO, Volkswagen 

Faced with the company's widening crisis over its rigging of emissions tests, Winterkorn announced his resignation as CEO in September 2015 -but not without the assurance of a hefty severance package worth 6 0 million. Though Winterkorn is yet to receive the said amount, given that he is still drawing a monthly salary despite stepping down as per company policy, he has amassed pension valued around 28 million. And despite the scandal enveloping the German auto giant, compensation experts predict he'll receive it. 

Stephen Elop, former CEO, Nokia 

Elop received a bigger -than expected pay-off as the Finnish firm finalised the sale of it handset business to Microsoft in 2014. Elop got 24.2 million -30 per cent more than the initial figure. Though the company said that 70 per cent of the pay-off was funded by Microsoft, a large part of the pay off was awarded in Nokia shares, which rose after the sale of the unit was agreed. This sparked angry reactions in Finland, with the country's economy minister, Jan Vapaavuori, reportedly saying he "found it difficult to understand the merits of this bonus". 

Marissa Mayer, CEO, Yahoo 

Even though Marissa Mayer's tumultuous four-year stint as Yahoo's CEO is yet to come to a close, she is set to receive giant paychecks after communication giant Verizon takes over t he company in the first quarter of 2017. If Mayer steps down -which is still an uncertainty -she'll be due about $57 million in severance. 

via economictimes