Quote from QQQShort:
Although AIG is winding down, it is has not filed for bankruptcy (because federal government funding prevented a bankruptcy filing).
No, they did not. There is no basis for abrogating these contracts due to change in ownership.
Are these contracts grounded in poor business decisions and greed? Absolutely, but those are not sufficient reasons to cancel the bonus contracts, no matter how distasteful their payment may be to those of us funding them. The federal government, on our behalf, accepted those obligations when they acquired AIG.
Contracts typically contain force majeure clauses. Here a sample
Sample force majeure clause
"No Party shall be liable for any failure to perform its obligations where such failure is as a result of Acts of God (including fire, flood, earthquake, storm, hurricane or other natural disaster), war, invasion, act of foreign enemies, hostilities (whether war is declared or not), civil war, rebellion, revolution, insurrection, military or usurped power or confiscation, terrorist activities,
nationalisation, government sanction, blockage, embargo, labour dispute, strike, lockout or interruption or failure of electricity [or telephone service], and no other Party will have a right to terminate this Agreement under Clause 19 (Termination) in such circumstances."
"Any Party asserting Force Majeure as an excuse shall have the burden of proving that reasonable steps were taken (under the circumstances) to minimize delay or damages caused by foreseeable events, that all non-excused obligations were substantially fulfilled, and that the other Party was timely notified of the likelihood or actual occurrence which would justify such an assertion, so that other prudent precautions could be contemplated."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_majeure