Severance policies typically call for a lump-sum cash payment, the ability to cash out stock awards and options immediately instead of having to potentially wait for years, and sometimes even bonuses.
The total cost to Priceline -- if not in cash, in the ability to raise it -- is about $1 billion.
But those are the estimates without "mitigants of cash," or the ability to raise money through loans and by selling off assets.
"Some form of corporate tax reduction is just going to improve the earnings, the cash flow, the ability of corporate America to compete in a global economy," said John T. Dillon, the chief executive of International Paper.
The result was a near fatal game of "chicken" as the clock ticked down to the day when the U.S. would run out of cash and the ability to borrow money in order to pay its bills.
Neither this cash generation, nor the ability to deliver sustainable double digit earnings per share growth for the foreseeable future is reflected in valuation.
Companies that are sitting on sizeable cash piles have the ability to return money to income-hungry investors in the form of dividends or share buy-backs.
In a conference call with Wall Street analysts to announce the plan, Mr. Cook spent much of the time reassuring his audience that Apple's top priority for its cash remained keeping the ability to finance its innovations.
"The resulting unusual, persistent and large disparities between wheat futures and cash prices impaired the ability of participants in the grain markets to use the futures market to price their crops and hedge their price risks over time," the report concluded.
Goldman's cash gives Facebook the ability to carry on growing at its current exponential rate – hiring expensive employees, developing new products and buying smaller start-ups – without having to jump through regulatory hoops which would accompany a traditional stock market flotation.
