Warner Bros shareholder revolt: majority find CEO Zaslav's compensation too high amid poor results
Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery this week voted against the compensation packages for its executives in 2024, including the controversial CEO David Zaslav.
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WBD held its annual meeting on Monday, and shareholders rejected the "Say on Pay" vote by a margin of 1,063,214,128 votes to 724,453,004 votes. Zaslav's compensation package in 2024 increased to $51.9 million. This result is a clear signal of shareholder dissatisfaction, as they apparently believe that this amount does not reflect the company's performance.
The vote is symbolic, as it is not binding, but other companies in the media and entertainment sector have already adjusted their compensation plans after shareholder rejection of their pay packages. Netflix, for example, made significant changes to its executive compensation after its shareholders rejected executive compensation in 2023. AMC Theatres' shareholders also rejected CEO Adam Aron's pay package the same year. The entertainment industry is one of the industries with the highest total executive compensation among sectors.
At the 2024 annual meeting, shareholders only barely approved WBD's executive pay packages, and this year Institutional Shareholder Services, an influential shareholder advisory firm, recommended that shareholders reject the pay packages "given the inadequate response and unresolved pay-performance mismatch." This suggests that dissatisfaction has been brewing for some time, and this year's vote was the culmination of pent-up grievances.
Source: THR
