Fiorina: I Received Only A $21 Million Severance Package — Not $42 Million
Fiorina: I Received Only A $21 Million Severance Package — Not $42 Million
Making an attempt to address the current financial crisis in Florida yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) offered what he called “straight talk,” saying he will “put an end to the greed that has driven our markets into chaos” and “stop multi-million dollar payouts to CEOs who have broken the public trust.”
During an interview with Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) today on MSNBC, host Andrea Mitchell said that McCain “sounds like a Democrat.” “He sounds like a hypocrite,” Wasserman-Schultz replied, citing Carly Fiorina as McCain’s top adviser:
WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: Well he sounds like a hypocrite because he has got a group of lobbyist and corporate interests running his campaign including Carly Fiorina, who walked away when she left Hewlett-Packard with $45 million including a $21.5 million severance package.
Later on MSNBC, Fiorina wryly dismissed Wasserman-Schultz’s criticism, saying it’s “not true” that she received a $40 million plus “severance package” from HP. Watch it:
Fiorina is technically right. She didn’t get a $40 million plus “severance.” She left HP with only a $21 million severance. But she also walked away with an additional $21 million in stock options and pension benefits, as the New York Times reported in 2005:
Carleton S. Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, will receive a severance package worth about $21.4 million, and stands to gain at least $21.1 million more.
The additional amount reflects the estimated value of her pension, stock options and Hewlett stock holdings, which the company did not include in her severance package.
But Wasserman-Schultz is also right in that McCain “sounds like a hypocrite” saying he’ll “stop multi-million dollar payouts to CEOs” when his top adviser can see the difference between her $42 million and $21 million severance in the midst of a financial crisis.
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47 Responses to “Fiorina: I Received Only A $21 Million Severance Package — Not $42 Million”
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September 16th, 2008 at 5:19 pmThat poor lady. Last time I got fired I left with a hand shake a thank you and the thought that at least it was a Saturday so I could watch the rest of the football games on TV.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:22 pm21 million cash + 21 million in stock options and benefits = 42 million total severance package.
Unless they are using Rove math that is.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:22 pmThis should be a really fun ad against McCain:
"What kind of economic and moral leadership can we expect from a McCain administration? Well, one based upon the considerable expertise of Carly Fiorina who took the successful HP Corporation and drove it into the ground. However, like many of McCain's corporate friends, she left well paid $21 million in severance and $21 million in stock options and other compensation. Not too bad for being fired as incompetent. Now Carly says that McCain is even less competent than she was. Wow, what a change for success."
September 16th, 2008 at 5:23 pmDarn and I was happy that after going 4 years with no raises at all nor any contract, the voters finally approved one after a judge had to order an emergency vote. No wonder these type of people don't work in the public sector actually doing something of value. There's no money in doing the right thing...
September 16th, 2008 at 5:24 pmThat's probably considered middle class in McCain's world.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:24 pmheard a good one this morning on ed schultz:
they "transformed overSIGHT to overLOOK"
-austin goolsby, top econ. advisor for obama
September 16th, 2008 at 5:25 pmYou can't but be overwhelmed by the hypocrisy, but even more distressing is the zombie partisanship it inspires. Holy opposite-world Batman! We know they're lying, cheating, conniving cretins, that much is clearly established; the mystery is that 50% of America is too!? *sigh*
September 16th, 2008 at 5:25 pmWas it 5 million that put you in middle class or 5 million that made you rich?
September 16th, 2008 at 5:25 pmAnd we wonder why the media is so smitten with McCain?
Look at the corporate buyouts and golden parachutes that are in place for the CEO's and top executives of the media conglomerates. The last thing that they want is corporate accountibility.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:28 pmPoor thing.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:29 pmFiorina: I Received Only A $21 Million Severance Package — Not $42 Million
- - Sounds like Carly will be one of the elite allowed to watch Colbert Platinum.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:31 pmLay off of poor Carly. She only has $21 million. She has to struggle to put lobster on her diamond-encrusted platinum serving dishes. She has pulled herself up by her own Golden Parachute, but still has far less than the $108 million of the man she is stumping for. Imagine her shame.
Get your John McCain - NOPE T-Shirts & Stickers today!
September 16th, 2008 at 5:31 pmi'm confused... all those figures flying around up there...
but it sounds like Wasserman-Schultz got it right...
well, a few mil over, but she said it included a $21.5 million severance package.
my head hurts...
September 16th, 2008 at 5:32 pmFiorina needs to give her mouth a break. She would be a lot better off for it -- the taste of shoe leather must be getting to her by now.
On this latest misstep -- criticizing Wasserman-Shultz's assessment of the amount of moolah Carly walked away from HP with -- she has made two errors. First, she attempted to correct someone who was right in the first place. And second, she has no idea how elitist she looks to a country who has had it with golden parachutes.
Carly -- here's a clue for the clueless. The next time somebody starts talking about your compensation, just let it go and change the subject. Those of us who struggle to fill our gas tanks and grocery carts on a five-figure income cannot relate to an eight-figure income, whether it's $21 million or $42 million.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:34 pmNo siree. No elitist here.
Plesae move along.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:36 pm$5 million was middle class but that was before inflation and the market crash.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:36 pmDisgusting.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:36 pmTrue Guido.
The "golden parachutes" are put in place by those who seek to make it ruinous to a company to fire a top echelon employee. That's why so few are removed before the bankruptcy proceedings. Or takeover bids.
And it won't stop because the ones who would be responsible for said firings, are protected in the same way.
Sigh. And yet, it's all in the day's absurdities for Flippy McSpin.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:37 pmAerosmith got it right.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:37 pmEat the rich, that's all they're good for.
Carleton S. Fiorina is just bitter. She’s thinking that should be her up there in the VP cockpit chair.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:39 pmAnd it begs to wonder, how much is the campaign paying Carly? Shouldn't Flippy's new-found sense of outrage apply to "his" campaign?
That's right. He doesn't run the campaign. It runs him. I hate this lying traitor more with each passing hour. And his little Chippy too.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:41 pmIt must be cool to accept a job with the knowledge that if you screw up (she did) you can still get 21 to 42 million bucks at everyone's expense! Now that she looks at us with her squinty eyes and plastered smile and lies at will, she knows that if she gets fired again no one will give a damn....mostly her.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:47 pmI dig Wasserman-Schultz, she has consistently backed Sen. Obama in any forum.
fiorina shouldn't talk so much, she isn't logical and she lacks commonsense. I wish I could fiuck up on my jobs and get paid millions.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:53 pm[...]
The Obama campaign responded to the McCain adviser's comments Tuesday shortly after they were reported.
"If John McCain hadn't said that 'the fundamentals of our economy are strong' on the day of one of our nation's worst financial crises, the claim that he invented the BlackBerry would have been the most preposterous thing said all week," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.
Meanwhile, McCain senior aide Matt McDonald said that the senator "laughed" when he heard the comment.
"He would not claim to be the inventor of anything, much less the BlackBerry. This was obviously a boneheaded joke by a staffer," McDonald said.
[...]
beep. beep. beep. backing up - watch out!
September 16th, 2008 at 5:56 pmHer pension is at least $200,000 a year.
September 16th, 2008 at 5:57 pmFiona saying she only got a 21 million dollar package is like a man saying he only hits his wife with an open hand... the only people who are impressed are other wife beaters.
September 16th, 2008 at 6:04 pmAnd if Fiona finds my post sexist, then how about this, her response is like a republican who says he always wears a condom when he sodomizes a pig...
September 16th, 2008 at 6:06 pmWasn't she fired, in part, for illegally spying on HP employees?
September 16th, 2008 at 6:08 pmGiven her two feet in mouth insertion today, Carly better invest that $42 million well.
If McCon-Pullin' aren't qualified to run a major company, they're surely not capable of running the Executive Branch of our federal government.
September 16th, 2008 at 6:21 pmWasn’t she fired, in part, for illegally spying on HP employees?
Yes, Bobwurst, I believe she was.
September 16th, 2008 at 6:24 pmThey spied on board members they suspected of leaking confidential corporate information. I did a few commentaries on it in fall of 2006. A link is below for those interested.
http://stateofthedivision.blogspot.com/search?q=HP
September 16th, 2008 at 6:26 pmWhat makes her final payment questionable,whether it was 21 millions or 42 millions, is the fact that Hewlett Packard was not doing well when Fiorina left, and the stock was declining sharply.
September 16th, 2008 at 6:27 pmShe was pressured to leave due to less than staisfactory achievment that lead to decline in the value of the company's stock.
Fiorina and other CEOs like her leave companies with tens of millions of dollars ,some with hundreds of millions of dollars in their final payment while leaving behind failing companies either about to go under or approaching that critical point.
Fiorina should'nt talk so much She isnt logical and she lacks common semce
I couldnt disagree more she should be put out there alot more by mccain and show why john mccain is the Pathetic.Out of touch.Warmonger and she does speak for the mccain camp even tho john mccain doesnt she's a perfect fit for his campainge
September 16th, 2008 at 6:27 pmCarly is about to get yanked off the air, given her major gaffes.
September 16th, 2008 at 6:28 pm"Well he sounds like a hypocrite because he has got a group of lobbyist and corporate interests running his campaign including Carly Fiorina, who walked away when she left Hewlett-Packard with $45 million including a $21.5 million severance package."
I'm confused. He's not saying she had a $45 million severance package. He's saying she received around $45 million in total, part of which was the $21.5 million severance package.
Am I missing something? Because if that's the case there wasn't a mistake at all.
September 16th, 2008 at 6:28 pmWow Wasserman-Schultz said that(McCain sounds like Hypocrite)you go girl.
September 16th, 2008 at 6:30 pmAnd the wealthy Fiorina won't scruple to spy on any American without legal authority either!
September 16th, 2008 at 6:33 pmFiorina follows the bush-model. She gets millions for incompetence.
September 16th, 2008 at 7:18 pmHeck of a job, Carly
Fiorina drove HP right into the sh*t hole. She doesn't deserve a dime.
September 16th, 2008 at 7:27 pmWasn’t HP famous for sending jobs overseas?
September 16th, 2008 at 8:14 pmWasn’t Fiorina at the wheel when HP tanked?
Is she an example of yet another CEO who profits without accountability?
Fiorina can't help but lie. She is scum.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:19 pmDepending on a technicality, Fiorna adds 21 + 21 and gets 21. Sounds like Enron math.
And of course, I really would feel sorry for her had she actually gotten only 21 mil which is only 4 times what McCain defined as the dividing line for the middle class.
September 16th, 2008 at 10:00 pm42 Million is what she left with. She screwed HP out of a lot more than that during her reign of terror.
September 16th, 2008 at 10:16 pmAs quoted Wasserman-Shultz is exactly correct (to rounding error) about the size of Fiorina's severance package and Fiorina is certainly misquoting her. "$45 million including a $21.5 million severance package." is a $21.5 million dollar severance package plus an additional separate $23.5 million aside from the severance package. 21.5 is consistent with "about 21.4" and 23.5 is actually consistent with 21.1 given the difficulty of marking complex assets to market.
Fiorina's version of what Wasserman-Schultz said is, in contrast, just not what Wasserman-Schultz said.
September 16th, 2008 at 10:21 pmAAWWWW, can we pass the hat around for the poor thing? She'll wind up homeless and having to sleep in her Rolls Royce!
About six years back, the two top men in CitiCorp made over $100 million each. About i/4 billion dollars together in one year! And the rich think they are the victims of class warfare and pay too much taxes!
September 16th, 2008 at 10:33 pmAre we now officially living in an Orwell novel?
September 17th, 2008 at 10:19 am