At first I disagreed with this post- isn't this breakup just the market working? Shareholders are free to leave at any time, and putting the government - the biggest monopolist of them all - in front of making business decisions scares me even more. That said, mergers between public corporations are far too often (always??) driven by C-level payouts like the Bewkes example. The wasteful and harmful disruption of companies and workers' wellbeing, all for one or two executives to join the Forbes list, indicates epic rent-seeking and failure of board governance. For a start, tie CEO compensation to post-merger stock performance. Most mergers will suddenly not look so appealing.
At first I disagreed with this post- isn't this breakup just the market working? Shareholders are free to leave at any time, and putting the government - the biggest monopolist of them all - in front of making business decisions scares me even more. That said, mergers between public corporations are far too often (always??) driven by C-level payouts like the Bewkes example. The wasteful and harmful disruption of companies and workers' wellbeing, all for one or two executives to join the Forbes list, indicates epic rent-seeking and failure of board governance. For a start, tie CEO compensation to post-merger stock performance. Most mergers will suddenly not look so appealing.