Adam Neumann is reportedly getting a $1.7 billion 'golden parachute' - here are 6 more ousted execs who received millions

"Companies find themselves in a bind, that unless they offer a fairly generous exit package, they will find it hard to attract the kind of talent that they want to attract," Fiss said. "Getting the genie back into the bottle would be very difficult at this point."

Golden parachutes can be problematic, however, in rewarding subpar leadership.

"The question is, are you being compensated for a low performance," Fiss said. "If an executive is asked to step away, yet you have a thoroughly, very attractive compensation package awaiting you. The typical incentives around high performance don't necessarily apply the same way."

Here are six other executives who received multimillion-dollar golden parachutes:

Verizon acquired Yahoo officially in June 2017, and consequently Mayer resigned as Yahoo's CEO, taking $23 million. This payment is a traditional golden parachute, triggered by a takeover.

Walker, who was CEO from 2012 to 2019, received a $98 million payout when Occidental Petroleum acquired Anadarko Petroleum (the acquisition was approved by the companies in May 2019 and completed in August 2019). This is a traditional golden parachute, as it was triggered by a company takeover.

Sources: Bloomberg, Business Wire, Business Wire

Smisek resigned as CEO in 2015 amid a federal corruption investigation, which was looking into whether Smisek was in cahoots with David Samson, the chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. United had reinstated a money-losing route from New Jersey to South Carolina at Samson's request, according to The New York Times.

That $37 million included about $5 million in cash as well as bonuses, insurance payments, a car, airport parking, and free flights, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2016. In 2017, The New York Times cited court documents indicating that Smisek's total package was $28.6 million.

Fiss, the USC business professor, described this as a golden-parachute payment in Harvard Business Review in 2016.

Dauman stepped down as CEO of the media conglomerate Viacom in 2016 after a decade serving as its top executive. Dauman was ousted amid a conflict with the then-93-year-old chairman emeritus, Sumner Redstone, and his daughter, Shari Redstone.

Dauman's golden parachute contained severance payment, Viacom shares, office space for three years, a personal assistant, healthcare, and a bonus. According to Bloomberg, those benefits brought the package to $75 million and additional pro-rated bonus payments and interest payments brought the total golden parachute closer to $95 million.

Around the time of departure, Bloomberg included Dauman on a list of 20 CEOs with multimillion-dollar golden parachutes in place, which it defined as compensation packages for executives terminated following a takeover. According to The New York Times, Dauman was entitled to his $95 million if he resigned for good reason or was terminated without cause.

The inventor of Android — the OS used by nearly 87% of world's smartphones — worked at Google from 2005 to 2014, serving as senior vice president of mobile and digital content for nearly a decade.

In 2017, however, The Information reported that Rubin had left Google because "an internal investigation determined he had carried on an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate." A bombshell New York Times investigation in 2018 found that Google paid Rubin a $90 million exit package in 2014 after finding that a woman Rubin had an affair with had credibly alleged that he "coerced her into performing oral sex in a hotel room in 2013."

Rubin's payout is a nontraditional golden parachute: He was not a CEO, and there was no takeover. This package falls under the more liberal definition of golden parachute. The Times characterized the payment as a Google provision that "softened the blow" of ousting Rubin.

The New York Times reported in October 2018 that Singhal, who was then Google's senior vice president of search operations, groped an employee at a 2015 "boozy off-site event attended by dozens of colleagues." Google told The Times that Singhal was found to be drunk and that, while there were no witnesses, the company found the employee's claim to be credible.

Business Insider obtained a lawsuit in March 2019 with a complaint saying Google gave Singhal a $45 million exit package. He ultimately received only $15 million, however, because he joined Uber as the company's senior vice president for engineering, which violated a noncompete agreement in his exit package.

Like Rubin's, Singhal's payment was a nontraditional golden parachute.