Fund manager Fidelity is among those taking a hard line, saying boards should be required to seek shareholder approval for "annual variable compensation" for directors before payment.
Mr. Belnick failed to tell directors about payments that Mr. Kozlowski made to his wife and girlfriend from a Tyco loan program, Mr. Berman said.
"But there is really nothing else like Paypal because it's incredibly easy and has removed a lot of barriers to making online payments," said Avivah Litan, research director for payment systems at the Gartner Group, a research firm.
In a testament to the limits of payola, Mr. Imus acknowledged that he couldn't even buy himself a hit record, despite plying various program directors with payments of several hundred dollars each.
According to As You Sow's senior director, Conrad MacKerron, payment of fees by consumers at the point of sale would drastically change the infrastructure of waste management – currently the degree of recycling efficiency varies from town to town, and that inconsistency results in toothpaste tubes and shampoo bottles ending up in landfills.
But a buyout would make a lot of sense for Yahoo! and give the leading portal the upper hand against America Online, according to Avivah Litan, research director for payment services at the Gartner Group, a computer research firm.
Summers, for one, seems to be taking a more active role in the tech industry these days, joining Andreessen Horowitz as a "Special Advisor" last year, and sits on the board of directors at payments darling, Square, and has taken on an advisor role at the ambitious new university disruptor, The Minerva Project.
Paulette Rowe Managing director, global payments acceptance, Barclaycard Chair of the Mayor's Fund for London and oversees a third of card payments in the UK.
Separate action to claw back "uncommercial director-related" payments presents targets of varying promise.
"One of the biggest concerns is data control," said Mario De Armas, senior director, international payments at Wal-Mart Stores.
