- CEO David Zaslav will gather a $51.9 million wage at Warner Bros. Discovery. That comes regardless of a shareholder vote rejecting the pay package deal. An advisory agency had advised shareholders say no citing “insufficient responsiveness and an unmitigated pay-for-performance misalignment.”
Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery voted down the compensation packages of David Zaslav and different high executives this week – however that’s not going to cease the corporate’s CEO from strolling away with $51.9 million.
The “Say on Pay” vote was extensively rejected, with 1,063,214,128 votes in opposition to it and simply 724,453,004 in favor, a roughly 60/40 vote in opposition to the measure. (Shareholders, final yr, authorised the pay package deal by a 53% majority.)
The vote, nonetheless, is only symbolic and nonbinding. The pay package deal works out to a 4% elevate for Zaslav—an additional $2.2 million over his 2023 pay.
The Warner Bros. Discovery board, in a assertion following the vote, mentioned it “appreciates the views of all its shareholders and takes the results of the annual advisory vote on executive compensation seriously. The Compensation Committee of the Board looks forward to continuing its regular practice of engaging in constructive dialogue with our shareholders.”
Zaslav has been CEO of WBD since 2022. His pay price is increased than that of a number of opponents, together with Disney’s Bob Iger ($41.4 million), Comcast’s Brian Roberts ($33.9 million) and SiriusXM’s Jennifer Witz ($32.1 million).
Whereas the shareholder vote was principally ceremonial at WBD, different firms have began to concentrate to these totals. Netflix adjusted its govt compensation after shareholders rejected the pay package deal in 2023.
Shareholder advisory agency Institutional Shareholder Companies had advisable shareholders reject Zaslav’s pay package deal (and the others) “in light of inadequate responsiveness and an unmitigated pay-for-performance misalignment.”
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
