{"id":579696,"date":"2010-05-26T14:56:09","date_gmt":"2010-05-26T18:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.footnoted.com\/?p=4866"},"modified":"2010-05-26T14:56:09","modified_gmt":"2010-05-26T18:56:09","slug":"weatherford-int%e2%80%99l-execs-to-get-soft-landings%e2%80%a6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/579696","title":{"rendered":"Weatherford Int\u2019l. Execs to Get Soft Landings\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"stack<\/a>June 15 is going to be a very expensive day for Weatherford International Ltd. (WFT), a Swiss-based multinational company that provides products and services for oil and natural gas wells in more than 100 countries. \u00a0That\u2019s the day when two top executives, Keith Morley and Jessica Arbarca, will leave the company but substantially increase their personal net worth.<\/p>\n

Morley, the departing SVP \u2013 Well Construction & Operations, joined the company in 2001. Arbarca joined the company in 1996 and worked her way up to the position of Vice President \u2014 Accounting and Chief Accounting Officer.<\/p>\n

The company filed a short 8-K<\/a> on May 24, 2010 to announce the upcoming departures, name the executives\u2019 successors, and note this one-sentence disclosure:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIn connection with Mr. Morley\u2019s and Ms. Abarca\u2019s exercise of their employment agreements, we anticipate recording an expense of $12.0 million in the quarter ending June 30, 2010 and making cash consideration payments of $24.5 million in the quarter ending December 31, 2010.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Both executives signed new employment agreements with the company on December 31, 2009. One day later, on January 1, 2010, the company adopted a new Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan. In the 8-K<\/a> that the company filed on New Year\u2019s Eve, the filing stated that the new agreements contained changes pertaining to the company\u2019s redomestication from Bermuda to Switzerland and revisions to ensure that the company\u2019s plans complied with the Internal Revenue Code.<\/p>\n

The company hasn\u2019t yet disclosed how much of the $24.5 million will go to Morley and how much will go to Arbarca. However, Weatherford\u2019s May 13, 2010 proxy<\/a> discloses that Morley was eligible to receive nearly $17.5 million if he left the company for \u201cgood reason\u201d (Arbarca is an executive, but not a NEO; thus, numbers for her are not stated in the filing.) \u00a0The company further noted that \u201c\u2026the freezing of the SERP may constitute \u2018good reason\u2019 for five of our executive officers, including Dr. Duroc-Danner, Mr. Becnel and Mr. Morley, to terminate their employment under their employment agreements.\u201d Of course, it also added, \u201cThe actual amounts to be paid out can only be determined at the time of, and depend upon the circumstances surrounding, such named executive officer\u2019s termination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of the final numbers, though, the size of their exit packages is surely a bitter pill for the thousands of employees who have been laid off<\/a> in the past few years with comparatively tiny severance packages.<\/p>\n

Image source:<\/em> Photos8.com<\/a> via Flickr<\/p>\n

Want to see more of what\u2019s hidden in corporate filings? Check out FootnotedPro, where we highlight unusual opportunities and potential problems before the rest of the market notices. For more information, or to inquire about a trial subscription, email us at pro@footnoted.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 15 is going to be a very expensive day for Weatherford International Ltd. (WFT), a Swiss-based multinational company that provides products and services for oil and natural gas wells in more than 100 countries. \u00a0That\u2019s the day when two top executives, Keith Morley and Jessica Arbarca, will leave the company but substantially increase their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4072,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-579696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4072"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}