10 of the Largest Golden Parachutes CEOs Ever Received

When the CEOs of the world’s top corporations are fired, often for running the business into ruin, they often land in retirement with a severance package that the rest of us buy lottery tickets for. These severance deals are so big they call them golden parachutes, since you crash to earth and still have extreme wealth given to you. Hey, you’d retire if you had a hundred million dollars in severance pay, wouldn’t you? But some CEOs even then go on to other jobs!

10. Tom Freston – $100,839,772

When Tom Freston couldn’t manage to acquire MySpace in 2006 for his company Sumner Redstone, they fired him in an embarrassingly public display. Still, Freston went laughing to the bank with his huge severance package of over $100 million. After leaving Sumner Redstone, he went on to head investment group and media consulting firm Firefly3 LLC.

Sweet, huh? But that deal only made number ten on the list of the biggest golden parachutes. Read the rest at Money Inc.