top management

It also split the managerial class: You have CEOs and other top management getting rewarded with stock options, so they become completely aligned with the owners of capital.

That deal brought to the C-suite the acquired company’s top management and its cost-cutting culture; in the Boeing corridors, the standing joke was that “McDonnell Douglas bought Boeing with Boeing’s money.”

Thompson’s plan comes after years of ownership changes, top management shakeups, staff cutbacks, declining TV ratings and a loss of the swagger the network had when it sparred with the first Trump administration.

"People in Boeing don't believe in words from top management any more," he says.

Those buybacks came amid big paydays for top management, which Bed Bath & Beyond said in regulatory filings were intended to align with financial performance.