Michael Ovitz Can Keep His Severance Pay

A Delaware judge has decided that Michael Ovitz can keep his enormous severance package of $140 million, even though the former Walt Disney Company president was terminated after only 14 months in office amid great criticism. The judge did tell Disney CEO Michael Eisner that he should not have committed the company to pay such enormous sums to Ovitz in view of Eisner's failure to keep the board informed of those committments. Angry shareholders had sued in an effort to void the company's obligations under the deal. The case had dragged on for eight years. Read more here (subscription may be required) here and here.