Dow DuPont heads will get $80m golden parachute

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35721962

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The heads of Dow and DuPont will get a combined $80m (£56.5m) in "golden parachute" leaving bonuses following the tie up of the two companies.

Dow and DuPont announced plans for a $130bn merger in December.

Dow's chief executive officer, Andrew Liveris, will get $52.8m in cash and stocks - a deal that includes his $40m retirement package.

Edward Breen -who became DuPont's chief executive in October - will receive $27.2m.

The new DowDupont company will be broken into three businesses focusing on agriculture, material sciences and specialty products over a two year period.

The companies have said they hope to save $3bn over this period through cost cutting efforts.

These types of leaving bonus have been given the name "golden parachute" to reflect the large payouts executives are given when a company is taken over and the executives are replaced.