A "peppercorn", in legal speak, is a metaphor for an extremely small payment, used to meet a legal requirement for a contract. Well-known examples of peppercorn payments are the 1 dollar annual salaries of top executives or government officials. Executives may choose to forgo large annual salaries, opting instead for a symbolic payment of a single dollar, saving the company money on executive pay. Similarly, acquiring companies for a peppercorn payment frequently occurs when a company's liabilities exceed its assets. That company's net worth may be negative, but money must be exchanged to meet acquisition law, no matter how small a sum or how great the acquired companies liabilities.