1. A payout to the top Times brass
On the morning of December 31, 2015, 100-odd top managers and editors of media giant Bennett Coleman, otherwise known as the Times group, received a hefty payment in their bank accounts. This story began in 2010, when worried about potential competition from FT, Samir Jain got the company to etch new contracts with these top managers, promising them ESOPs when the company went for a proposed IPO. When that didn’t materialise, and talk about the ESOP vanished, a retiring honcho sent BCCL a legal notice. The media giant’s lawyers saw the writing on the wall, and most (mind you, not all) of the managers got their pots of gold. Already a few have chosen this moment to cash out—brand manager Rahul Kansal...
