Meanwhile, a former Banco de la Nacion executive was the first official to say that he had accepted a payoff, of more than $1 million, as a sign of I.B.M.'s appreciation.
While more than half the workers, exhausted, eventually accepted a payoff, those who held out to the end were rewarded: first, the greater Marseille authority, keen to preserve jobs, agreed to buy the factory site from Unilever for €5m and pay a symbolic extra euro for the machinery.
With billions of dollars at stake, a brand-name manufacturer might prefer to pay its generic competitor substantial money to drop its challenge and delay marketing its drug, and the generic maker might prefer to accept a big payoff rather than face the uncertainties of litigation and actually trying to sell its drug.
At the arraignment yesterday of a Brooklyn judge charged with accepting a bribe, prosecutors filed a secret tape recording that caught the judge laughing as he prodded a lawyer for what both men seemed to understand was an overdue payoff.
Patten said he wished Entwistle had accepted a £225,000 payoff instead because his reputation would not have suffered.
Coincidentally or not, the pieces soon fell into place, as the National Association of Automobile Dealers accepted a $7.5 million payoff from the N.F.L. to alter its own convention plans.
In Yonkers yesterday, Mayor Henry Spallone not only accepted a $95,000 payoff from a power broker but also held a news conference to announce it.
Ireland's assistant manager was circumspect throughout a press conference held ostensibly to preview the England friendly – including on the controversy of the FAI accepting a €5m payoff from Fifa – but was notably downbeat on the prospect of welcoming Grealish into the fold.
For example, risk aversion, or the reluctance of a person to accept a situation with an uncertain payoff rather than one with a more certain but potentially lower payoff, may be a barrier to accepting beneficial technology.
If the amount for which you can sell your house isn't enough to cover the balance of your loan, the lender may agree to accept a reduced amount in a "short payoff" or "pre-foreclosure sale".
