Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s 2023 compensation rises 26.5% to $49.7 million

[DinkyDev]

Warner Bros. Discovery has been in cost-cutting mode — except when it comes to paying top execs.

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David Zaslav, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, had a 2023 pay package worth $49.7 million, up 26.5% from the year prior, according to the company's 2024 proxy statement filed Friday. Zaslav's compensation totaled $39.3 million in 2022, after he received an astonishing $246.6 million (which included $203 million in stock-option grants) in 2021.

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For 2023, Zaslav had a base salary of $3 million, stock awards valued at $23.1 million, a cash bonus of $22 million and $1.6 million in other compensation (including $705,182 for personal security services and $767,908 for his personal use of the company's private jet).

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Other WBD senior execs also saw double-digit pay hikes in 2023. CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels earned $17.1 million (up 26%); chief revenue and strategy officer Bruce Campbell, $18.3 million (up 33%); JB Perrette, president/CEO of global streaming and games, $20.1 million (up 43%); and president of international Gerhard Zeiler, $13.3 million (up 30%).

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Cash bonuses and stock awards for Zaslav and WBD's other named executive officers are tied to free cash flow targets. The company made notable headway here: Its reported free cash flow for 2023 was $6.16 billion, up 86% year over year. That helped the company pay down some of its massive debt load; WBD ended 2023 with $41.9 billion in long-term debt, an improvement from $48.6 billion the year prior. In addition, Zaslav's cash bonus was awarded under his May 2021 employment agreement pursuant to the proposed AT&T deal for Discovery to buy WarnerMedia (which closed in April 2022) under which he agreed to remain CEO of the combined company.

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Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s 2023 Compensation Rises 26.5% to Nearly $50 Million

David Zaslav, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, had a 2023 pay package worth $49.7 million, up 26.5% from the year prior.

variety.com

Worth every cent, right Era?

 

[Laughton]

Good to know hard work is still rewarded in America.

 

[Helix]

was it paid from all the shit he canned?

 

[Tamanon]

Seems like he's getting the company in a more financially healthy place, and these are all target-based. Seems normal for execs hitting targets.

 

[medinaria]

Cash bonuses and stock awards for Zaslav and WBD's other named executive officers are tied to free cash flow targets. The company made notable headway here: Its reported free cash flow for 2023 was $6.16 billion, up 86% year over year.

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area man achieves milestones in contract, gets paid according to contract, news at 11

 

[Toriko]

Isn't HBO Max finally profitable. A rare thing for streaming? Shareholders seem to think he is doing good I guess

 

[Burt]

Must be doing a great job with the stock price, that's the excuse these guys use right

Spoiler

how is this legal

 

[AgeEighty]

These people have done such an excellent job keeping the rest of us angry at each other while they quietly clean out the vault.

 

[Reym]

Whew! Good thing they got rid of so many projects and employees so they can pay for what REALLY matters!

 

[Surakian]

Must be doing a great job with the stock price, that's the excuse these guys use right

Spoiler

how is this legal

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It's all just a ploy to get rich before selling it all off.

 

[Tremorah]

Must be doing a great job with the stock price, that's the excuse these guys use right

Spoiler

how is this legal

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[Mariachi507]

Makes me so fucking sick.

How much did that fucking Wile Coyote movie cost? 50% more than that or something.

 

[Foot]

Seems like he's getting the company in a more financially healthy place, and these are all target-based. Seems normal for execs hitting targets.

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You actually do not have to hand it to 'em.

 

[FTF]

So well deserved 🙄

 

[ngower]

So five c-suite execs make $100m annually? Seems like an easy way to save some money would be to eat into their own earnings, but here I go again not even thinking of the shareholders.

 

[Evoker]

Fuck this leech of a CEO on society

 

[entremet]

Of course, his buddies are on the board.

 

[Godfather]

Oh cool, so all of their workers are getting a 26% raise too, right?

 

[ngower]

Oh cool, so all of their workers are getting a 26% raise too, right?

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Anakin Padme right dot jpg

 

[oatmeal]

Couldn't have happened to a better guy.

 

[Kagari]

Isn't HBO Max finally profitable. A rare thing for streaming? Shareholders seem to think he is doing good I guess

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Not really, it's more that they rolled linear HBO proper into that reporting so we don't actually know the breakdown.

 

[Toriko]

Not really, it's more that they rolled linear HBO proper into that reporting so we don't actually know the breakdown.

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How big is linear HBO these days? Linear is dying in general so I doubt that is propping it up.

 

[Sheepinator]

No doubt execs like him are way overpaid, and the performance based targets for cash bonuses are probably set low to ensure they get paid out, as is typical. However, it remains bait for article writers to keep talking about Zas "receiving $246M". You can see on page 77 that the vast majority of that was stock options in the $30's (stock is currently $8 something), i.e. worthless unless he does a good job for shareholders, which he has not (though to be fair, this high interest rate environment is a terrible one for a debt loaded company like WBD).

This seems excessive:

"Per the terms of his employment agreement, Mr. Zaslav is permitted to utilize our corporate aircraft for up to 250 hours of personal flight time each year. The first 125 hours are provided to him at the Company's expense, and, with respect to the second 125 hours, Mr. Zaslav is required to reimburse the Company at a rate of two times the cost of fuel, as provided in the aircraft time-sharing agreement between the Company and Mr. Zaslav."

The big increase for 2024 seems to be due to additional shares being granted, which I may look further into later. That info did not present itself to me as quickly as I expected it to find it in that doc.

 

[Kagari]

How big is linear HBO these days? Linear is dying in general so I doubt that is propping it up.

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Trying to find some recent breakdowns, but they've been combining data for a while now under the banner of 'direct to consumer' which includes HBO, Max, and Discovery+. I'll see what I can dig up on just linear exclusively.

 

[Gay Bowser]

How big is linear HBO these days? Linear is dying in general so I doubt that is propping it up.

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There's still a lot of inertia, and a lot of people with cable packages with HBO. That is definitely propping it up at least a little, and considering the combined HBO/streaming division is only barely profitable, it seems likely that the streaming part of that itself isn't.

Not that that really matters. WBD is clearly still in growth mode with Max and is willing to run the division at breakeven or a slight loss to grow the user base. It's like launching a broadcast network; nobody who does it expects to profit immediately. They're deliberately not charging for the B/R Sports add-on right now, for example. They say it'll cost $9.99 a month eventually, at some indeterminate date in the future when this initial "trial" period ends.

 

[Galkinator]

The fuck?
This looks really bad

 

[Falchion]

His job is to make the shareholders more money and I guess he's done that. Shame it's come by cutting everything.

 

[Jakisthe]

Well done to beloved character actor Bruce Campbell.

 

[kowhite]

was it paid from all the shit he canned?

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That doesn't actually make any sense so…no it was not.

 

[Sheepinator]

was it paid from all the shit he canned?

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Some of it, indirectly. Part of the financial metrics for the cash bonus part of the comp is EBITDA, which benefits from reduced costs. Likewise, meeting other business metrics to help him get his bonus.

 

[Mindwipe]

Must be doing a great job with the stock price, that's the excuse these guys use right

Spoiler

how is this legal

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That line would be a lot, lot, lot worse if Warner hadn't paid down a decent amount of debt this year.

Like a lot.

 

[Darknight]

This part in the OP seems to be pretty key to why he got the bonus:

Cash bonuses and stock awards for Zaslav and WBD's other named executive officers are tied to free cash flow targets. The company made notable headway here: Its reported free cash flow for 2023 was $6.16 billion, up 86% year over year. That helped the company pay down some of its massive debt load; WBD ended 2023 with $41.9 billion in long-term debt, an improvement from $48.6 billion the year prior.

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Hitting targets and significantly reducing debt.

 

[JigglesBunny]

 

[Anth0ny]

x has been in cost-cutting mode — except when it comes to paying top execs.

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evergreen sentence, always





except Iwata that one time <3

 

[davepoobond]

This part in the OP seems to be pretty key to why he got the bonus:



Hitting targets and significantly reducing debt.

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yeah, whatever we think of him, he's doing what he's told to do. the company is still around, its making money off of HBO Max instead of losing. He's accomplished the goal. I suppose ends dont justify the means, but no one is going to remember in 5 years when he's finally gone.

 

[andymoogle]

Seems like he's getting the company in a more financially healthy place, and these are all target-based. Seems normal for execs hitting targets.

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It shouldn't be normal.

 

[Toriko]

evergreen sentence, always





except Iwata that one time <3

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Isn't that because of Japan Law?

 

[Darknight]

It shouldn't be normal.

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Compensation for hitting target goals shouldn't be normal?

 

[Tsuyu]

Guess Kevin Tsujihara didn't manage to gouge this company as hard, what a missed opportunity for him.

 

[RexNovis]

Must be doing a great job with the stock price, that's the excuse these guys use right

Spoiler

how is this legal

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Read up on Jack Welch. Basically the whole point is they are extracting as much value for shareholders as possible at the expense of the long term business. It's the private equity model except as administered by the executive class and it's a fucking disaster

 

[andymoogle]

Compensation for hitting target goals shouldn't be normal?

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It shouldn't be normal for a CEO to make this kind of money, no.

Also, why the fuck is this person the only one to get compensation? Where is the compensation for the other people working at the company. You know, the ones who actually make the money for the company.

 

[Darknight]

It shouldn't be normal for a CEO to make this kind of money, no.

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When dealing with steering a company and making decisions that impact a multi billion dollar company, I have no issue with agreed compensation for meeting specific targets. He was paid to do what was requested of him.

Also, why the fuck is this person the only one to get compensation? Where is the compensation for the other people working at the company. You know, the ones who actually make the money for the company.

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First off, he was the one who made the decisions and made moves to put the company in the position they're in today. I mean we saw what happened at Disney with Bob Chapek and how he was ousted because of the impact he was having on the company from his decision making. So yes, CEOs can have significant impact on how a company performs based on their decisions. The people you're referring to aren't in a position and aren't making those decisions. Second, we do not know who else was compensated.

 

[AstronaughtE]

It shouldn't be normal for a CEO to make this kind of money, no.

Also, why the fuck is this person the only one to get compensation? Where is the compensation for the other people working at the company. You know, the ones who actually make the money for the company.

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Well he's not the only one.

Other WBD senior execs also saw double-digit pay hikes in 2023. CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels earned $17.1 million (up 26%); chief revenue and strategy officer Bruce Campbell, $18.3 million (up 33%); JB Perrette, president/CEO of global streaming and games, $20.1 million (up 43%); and president of international Gerhard Zeiler, $13.3 million (up 30%).

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He found money to meet goals, then they divvied that found money amongst themselves.

 

[andymoogle]

Second, we donot know who else was compensated.

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Well he's not the only one.
He found money to meet goals, then they divvied that found money amongst themselves.

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😂 Stop licking corporation boots, Darknight. It's not going to make your life better. It will only benefit the rich. These are parasites in our society and you are literally spewing capitalist propaganda in favor of the rich.

 

[Speedstersonic]

How have we not eaten the rich yet?

How do people not see these numbers and question fucking everything????

I just DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW WE ARE STILL HERE

Even if i go by percentage, the most i've ever gotten was 4% at a job for a yearly raise, this is so fucked

 

[Surakian]

How have we not eaten the rich yet?

How do people not see these numbers and question fucking everything????

I just DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW WE ARE STILL HERE

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I think the fact that these numbers are just so inconceivable by the average human…also we've been brainwashed to be against each other as well as overworked and made complacent to life.

And not to mention the sort of culture here…we are just super fucked.

 

[Speedstersonic]

I think the fact that these numbers are just so inconceivable by the average human…also we've been brainwashed to be against each other as well as overworked and made complacent to life.

And not to mention the sort of culture here…we are just super fucked.

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I just don't get it, my brain is melting.

It's there clear as day. Numbers don't change. Can nobody do math anymore at all?

This isn't new. I just

Ugh this broke me a bit today :(

And i'm over here having panic attacks about the fact i'll never be able afford to have a house or kids at the rates things are going.

 

[BebopCola]

Coyote vs. ACME had to die so Zaslav could get a new yacht

 

[Zip]

The fact that he got a bonus for hitting targets isn't the thing that boggles the mind, it's the ludicrous scale executive pay has reached in general. What might be a bonus of $1,000 for a general staff member for hitting targets is for some reason $10,000,000 for an executive. The scale is completely out of whack with reasonability, and shows what eventually happens when you give people so much power over their own pay.

I can't imagine it being resolved without laws passing to restrict executive compensation with an eye to both cash and stock/benefits. They are locked now into companies defending it by saying they need to 'compete' for executives by offering things at that scale.

 

[Darknight]

😂 Stop licking corporation boots, Darknight. It's not going to make your life better. It will only benefit the rich. These are parasites in our society and you are literally spewing capitalist propaganda in favor of the rich.

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Understanding that someone is compensated even in a large way for hitting agreed upon targets from decisions that involve large amounts of money isn't corporate boot licking especially in the light of having a perfect example of how having the wrong CEO in place can impact things. Making a lazy argument like you did about being a corporate boot licker also doesn't make my life any better either.