While Verizon will give wireline technicians and other support staff it lays off later this year some kind of goodbye severance package, they'll find it hard to swallow what former COO Denny Strigl is getting in his retirement package.
According to a preliminary proxy statement Verizon filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said Strigl will get a cool $18.55 million.
Strigl, who retired at the end of 2009, spent 41 years with Verizon and its former incarnations of New York Telephone and Bell Atlantic. Among his many achievements were his pioneering efforts to roll out wireless services at both the former Ameritech (now AT&T Mobility) and Bell Atlantic Mobile (Verizon Wireless). In addition, Strigl helped craft what is now known as Verizon Business through its acquisition of the former MCI in 2005 and its deployment of its Fiber to the Premises (FTTP)-based FiOS network.
News of Strigl's retirement package, which Verizon says it will dole out in early July, coincides with the company's plan to lay off about 13,000 employees this year as a result of declining sales in its wireline unit.
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