the year of the nine figure club

Many Hollywood executives have seen pay rises in 2021, but few: Endeavor mogul Emmanuel, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, David Zaslav, and Amazon CEO Andy Jas: rarely found on air participating in a nine-figure club.

“Nine-figure CEO compensation is unusual, even in 2021, when average total compensation has increased by 31%,” said Nathan Grantz, a research expert at corporate leadership data firm Equilar.

Special circumstances contributed to each of these cases. Zaslav oversaw the recently closed merger that created Warner Bros. Discovery and $202.9 million in options were awarded last year, with a total payout of $246.6 million, thanks to a new employment contract he is signing for the combined company.

Emmanuel received a $293.7 million equity award when Endeavor unveiled part of a $308.2 million equity package in April last year. Agency head “It fits into the broader trend of large equity rewards around IPOs (eg Airbnb, Eventbrite), although they are often not as large as this one,” says Grantz.

Jassi saw nearly his entire $212.7 million payroll package implemented through a stock grant related to his promotion to CEO in July. Amazon CEO “This is an interesting case because I’m sure Amazon Media Branch is doing well, they consider themselves a tech company, and compared to other tech companies where eight-figure average pay is more common,” said Grantz. . “Also, he only became CEO last year and received a big award for that promotion.”

Zaslav received a wide variety of awards from Discovery’s board of directors long before it merged with AT&T Entertainment Assets. “He was also nine years at the club before. [earning $129.4 million] “In 2018, after overseeing the acquisition of Scripps Networks and moving from Discovery Communications to Discovery Inc,” said Grantz. “They say in the 2020 Payroll Survey [they vote every three years] They received 61% of the votes, so this practice may have some contraindications,” he suggested, although shareholder votes are only advisory and not mandatory.

Almost all entertainment executives hollywood reporterThe annual schedule still beats the average payout of $20 million seen in the Equilar 100 annual survey, which reflects compensation disclosures from companies across industries. Observers are not surprised. “Salaries in other industries are generally low,” said Hal Vogel, CEO of Vogel Capital Management and a former Wall Street analyst at Media Telecom. “But private equity and hedge fund leaders are doing a lot more in a good year. They also run the risk of having a very bad year. It seems that in media and entertainment this rarely happens. Media executives often risk a relatively modest reduction of 10 or 20 percent.

The only leader on the list to receive a double-digit cut (49%) and hit the exact average salary from the Equilar 100 survey is Bob Buckish, CEO of Paramount Global, who earned $20 million in 2021 after earning $38. .9 million. in 2020. Equity rewards continued into 2020 and its payouts changed slightly, the company said.

In contrast, Disney bosses’ salaries have doubled. In the fiscal year ending in October, prior to the conglomerate’s departure in late 2021, Bob Iger’s compensation package surpassed that of Netflix co-CEOs Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos in the calendar year. And Bob Chapek, in his first full fiscal year as CEO, crossed the $30 million mark.

One notable change each year: Former WarnerMedia CEO Jason Killard, whose $52.2 million pay package ranked No. 1 in 2020, has been released. Why? Kilar was the highest-paid media executive in 2020. But in 2021, AT&T decided not to include him in its proxy statement, even though he was still the company’s CEO when he filed the statement.

So what happened? AT&T never mentions the name Kilar in its proxy, but reading between the lines sheds light on the situation. Kilar’s compensation package appears to have been a source of controversy between the company and some major institutional investors. And her structure was such that much of her compensation was preloaded (at least for accounting purposes), giving AT&T an excuse to fire her from the proxy firm this year.

In the lawsuit, AT&T stated that “one-time leadership and business transition grants were awarded in 2020 to recruit and retain talent, but only after the committee determined that such grants were necessary for a qualified executive considering a competitive marketplace. Talent is necessary and essential to transform a company.”

Killard is the only sheriff to enforce this law. The CEO (who had a salary of $2.5 million and a specified cash bonus of $2.5 million for a copy of his offer letter) received a huge share of AT&T stock valued at $48 million. and would be temporarily transferred. instead of on time. Other AT&T executives received promotions based on performance. After meeting with shareholders, the company wrote that “one-time concessions should not be a common practice and should only be used in exceptional cases”.

At the same time, AT&T wrote in a power of attorney that the company included compensation for CEO John Stank, CFO Pascal Desros (and his predecessors who worked part-year), and the other three highest-paid CEOs. officers”.

That additional line meant that AT&T could lose any executive earning less than $7.5 million, which Lori Lee, CEO of AT&T Latin America and director of global marketing for the company, did last year. With Kilar’s stock grant posted on the puppets’ mouths last year, his total payout in 2021 is likely to be around $5 million or so.

Alex Veprin participated in the report.

A version of this story first appeared in the April 27 issue of The Gossipify. Click here to subscribe.