Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s 2021 Pay Package Totaled $246M On Massive Stock Option Grant

marketing manager. Six years later, he founded AWS with a team of 57 people and helped build it into one of Amazon’s biggest profit generators.Without the boost of the stock grant, Jassy’s salary was only $175,000 and Amazon paid for security services the company valued at about $600,000. The value of the grant was based on the price of shares at the time of the grant and the shares will vest over 10 years.

Andy Jassy, a longtime Amazon exec who became the company’s CEO last summer, made $212.7 million in total compensation in 2021, according to an SEC filing.

Bob Chapek, the Disney CEO who is under siege, hopefully does not watch much TV. If he does, he’ll see a succession of fellow CEOs who seem prone to self-destruction — Adam Neumann of WeWork, Travis Kalanick of Uber, Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos, etc. — portrayed on buzzy TV series. Viewing these shows back to back, the stolid Chapek might wonder whether the CEO is extinct as a folk hero.

ISS, an influential shareholder advisory firm, has recommended “withhold” votes for the three Discovery directors up for reelection at the April annual meeting “due to poor stewardship” in compensation.

AT&T has firmed up more details of its spinoff of WarnerMedia, which is poised to combine with Discovery in a $43 billion merger.

Back as an in-person gathering in the Canadian Rookies after a pandemic induced absence of two years, the Banff World Media Festival is bringing in some heavy hitters this summer.

Tom Rutledge, chairman and CEO of Charter Communications, saw his 2021 compensation rise to $41.9 million from $38.8 million in 2020.

Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel’s 2021 compensation reached $308.2 million, at least on paper, thanks to the company’s initial public offering last April.

Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, who has long espoused the benefits of streaming’s boom times, said he’s “not nervous” about Warner Bros Discovery possibly pumping the brakes as it looks to take on Netflix and Disney.

EXCLUSIVE: After months of legal anticipation after his December 2021 firing by Jeff Zucker, Chris Cuomo has just launched the official opening salvo in what looks to be protracted battle with CNN for not only $125 million in cash, but his character and family drama as well.

Discovery and AT&T have determined the 13 members of the board of directors for Warner Bros Discovery, the new company that will be created via a pending $43 billion merger.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorSamuel Di Piazza Jr. will serve as the chairman of Warner Bros.

Warner Bros Discovery, the company created by merging Discovery Inc. and WarnerMedia, and signed a new employment agreement through the end of 2027.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorDiscovery CEO David Zaslav received a massive $203 million stock option grant last year that inflated his total 2021 compensation package to a staggering $246.6 million.The stock option grant comes as Zaslav is about to lead a much larger company as the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery nears completion. Although Zaslav will not see any liquidity from those options for years to come — and the payout only comes in success — the sheer size of the package is sure to draw more criticism about excessive executive compensation.Zaslav received another $13.1 million in stock awards last year, in addition to $22 million in other compensation, on top of a previously reported $4.4 million bonus.

Eventually, HBO Max and Discovery+ will come together as a single streaming offering, but the integration will “take a while,” CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said at an investor conference today.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterDiscovery investors voted in approval of the company’s $43 billion acquisition of WarnerMedia from AT&T to create Warner Bros. Discovery during a special meeting of stockholders Friday, marking one of the final formal steps before the transaction can close.The deal, a spinoff of WarnerMedia from AT&T, is expected to be completed early in Q2, with insiders telling Variety the estimated date is between April 11-28. The merger has already received approval from the U.S.

Discovery shareholders are set to OK the $43 billion merger with WarnerMedia on Friday, the last big step before AT&T completes the spinoff. Ahead of the deal’s expected close next month, a who’s-in/who’s-out parlor game is gaining intensity as CEO David Zaslav finalizes the leadership team.

Discovery chief David Zaslav to see what he has planned once his company’s merger with WarnerMedia is consummated, and speculation is running rampant about who deep-pocketed streamers Apple and Netflix may be planning to hire.All of this jockeying is coming as the industry is experiencing a “once-in-a-generation seismic shift in the power structure of the business,” according to one former studio chief. As major media companies have launched in-house streaming services, their hunger for buzzy shows and movies has become insatiable.

EXCLUSIVE: Jeff Zucker has finalized a deal with WarnerMedia over the former CNN chief’s sudden fall from grace last month.