Well, I'm sure he created a lot of jobs in those 12 hours

[giandujakiss]

Behind Duke's CEO-for-a-Day

Duke Energy Corp. signed a contract June 27 with Bill Johnson that would make him its next chief executive. Five days later, hours after Mr. Johnson took his job, the company's board decided it just wasn't working out.

Mr. Johnson had been announced as Duke's next CEO 18 months ago, when Duke unveiled a $26 billion merger with his old company, Progress Energy Inc. In fact, it was written into the merger agreement that he would take the CEO job, which Mr. Johnson had held at Progress.

According to securities filings, Mr. Johnson signed his employment contract on June 27, just ahead of the merger's July 2 close. He resigned his post at 12:01 a.m. on July 3. People familiar with the matter said the board decided he wasn't right for the job and instead gave it to Jim Rogers, who ran Duke before the deal.

Despite his short-lived tenure, Mr. Johnson will receive exit payments worth as much as $44.4 million, according to Duke. That includes $7.4 million in severance, a nearly $1.4 million cash bonus, a special lump-sum payment worth up to $1.5 million and accelerated vesting of his stock awards, according to a Duke regulatory filing Tuesday night. Mr. Johnson gets the lump-sum payment as long as he cooperates with Duke and doesn't disparage his former employer, the filing said.

Under his exit package, Mr. Johnson also will receive approximately $30,000 to reimburse him for relocation expenses.

One immediate consequence of the way the change was handled is Mr. Johnson's exit will cost Duke up to $1.5 million more than he would have received under the contract he had as Progress CEO.

[I]t had become clear to some over the months leading to the deal's close that the original arrangement wouldn't work, a person familiar with the matter said. "Different personalities, different cultures," the person said.

Obviously, it is critically important that we not raise Mr. Johnson's taxes, lest we punish him for his success and remove his incentives to work productively.

(I will admit to looking forward to what will surely be the hilarious shareholder litigation that's about to take place, and which Duke surely knows, but obviously factored in to the cost of this decision anyway.)