OVERLAND PARK, Kan., March 28 (UPI) -- Sprint Nextel lost customers and share value in 2007, but former CEO Gary Forsee, forced to resign in October, walked away with $40 million.
In addition, Forsee's severance package includes a payment of $84,325 a month for the rest of his life, The Kansas City Star reported Friday.
The pay was nearly twice Forsee's $21.3 million compensation package for 2006, the report said.
The sums "were part of his contract," a Sprint spokesman said.
"If you succeed, you should walk away with a lot," Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware told the newspaper. "If you fail, you shouldn't."
Among notable severance packages, former Merrill Lynch Chief Executive Officer Stanley O'Neal, in charge of the company during huge write-downs on mortgage losses, received a package worth $100 million in 2007.
Former Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli left the company in 2007 with a deal worth $210 million.
