If United Airlines and Continental go forth with a merger, the top five executives at UAL will be receiving millions in cash and stock, according to The New York Times and The Financial Times, citing a blog on Footnoted.org.

The site, which examined the company’s regulatory filings, discovered that if a merger had taken place in 2009, the Chairman and Chief Executive of UAL, Glenn Tilton, would have received $9 million in a disbursement triggered by a change in power of the company.

The number is almost four times the number listed on the prior year’s proxy filing.

As a component of their compensation packages, the executives of UAL benefit from clauses which set off accelerated payouts should there be a change in management. In total, the five top United executives would have been permitted to around 17.6 million last year.

Performance- based equity rewards, usually paid out over several years, would be brought forward if more than 50 percent of the company’s shares changed control.

Source: The New York Times

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