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© Sack/Star Tribune
Golden parachutes, the huge payouts some CEOs receive when they're ousted from the top job, have been the subject of increasing public scrutiny.

But now, exorbitant payouts to chief executives of companies that have been acquired are becoming a new kind of parachute and they are even more lucrative than getting sacked, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The CEOs of three recently acquired companies will rake in sums of $50 million or more as a result of the deals, according to The Wall Street Journal.

For example, cell phone maker Motorola's CEO Sanjay Jha could receive a $65.7 million payout from Google's acquisition of the company if he leaves within two years. Michel Orsinger, the chief executive of medical device company Synthes, which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson, could get $51.9 million if he leaves the company within two years. And George Lindemann, the CEO of natural gas pipeline operator Southern Union, could receive $53.8 million from the acquisition by rival company Energy Transfer Equity, the WSJ reported.

The payouts are considerably higher than those of chief executives who have been let go; for example, Leo Apotheker, the former CEO of Hewlett Packard who was recently replaced by Meg Whitman in September, received about $13 million for walking away from the job.

The Dodd-Frank financial reform law attempted to inhibit such payouts by calling for advisory votes on exit packages for deals requiring shareholder approval, but so far, only 25 such votes have been scheduled, according to the WSJ.

So far, though, no company has actually voted down a golden parachute, though approximately one-third of investors in tech company Savvis opposed a potential payout of $28.9 million to CEO James Ousley when the company was acquired by CenturyLink, the WSJ report said.