Yahoo! Inc, owner of the most-visited US Web site, adopted severance plans for employees that would pay nearly two years of salary to fend off a 44.6 billion dollar bid from Microsoft Corp.
Full-time employees would get at least four months of severance pay and executive officers will get 24 months, Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo said.
Employees will be eligible for the payments if they are fired or leave for "good reason" within two years of a purchase, Yahoo said.
Yahoo's board, after rejecting Microsoft's offer last week, may be taking steps to make a purchase by the world's largest software maker more expensive. The 31-dollar a-share bid, which was 62 per cent higher than Yahoo's share price the day before, "substantially undervalues" the company, Yahoo said.
Yahoo's plans also entitle departing employees to health insurance.