From the New York Times report on the sale of Al Gore's Current TV to Al Jazeera, via Mike Allen's Politico Playbook: "people with direct knowledge of the deal pegged it at around $500 million, indicating a $100 million payout for Mr. Gore, who owned 20 percent of Current. Mr. Gore and his partners were eager to complete the deal by Dec. 31, lest it be subject to higher tax rates that took effect on Jan. 1. … But the deal was not signed until Wednesday."
Shades of Lloyd Blankfein, the Goldman Sachs CEO who made post-election noises of assent when it came to raising taxes and praised the fiscal cliff deal to raise the top tax rates, yet who also is mentioned in this Bloomberg News article that begins, "Goldman Sachs accelerated delivery of $65 million in stock awards to 10 executives, including Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, helping them avoid higher tax rates that take effect this year." Goldman gave out the shares in December rather than the usual January date to avoid the tax increase.