Using Company® compensation data, the Wall Street Journal looks at the biggest CEO pay package. Below is an excerpt from the article by Theo Francis. The head of advertising-technology company Trade Desk Inc. received a pay package last year that the company valued at more than $800 million—and which could leave him holding billions of… Continue reading Biggest CEO Pay Package So Far? $835 Million to the Head of an Ad-Tech Firm
Tag: Stock Options
Discovery CEO Received $246 Million in Compensation in 2021, Including Big Options Grant
Discovery Inc Chief Executive David Zaslav received total compensation valued at $246.6 million in 2021, including nearly $203 million in options grants, more than sextupling his compensation from the year before, the company said in a securities filing Monday. Mr. Zaslav’s compensation package is the highest CEO pay reported by any S&P 500 company so… Continue reading Discovery CEO Received $246 Million in Compensation in 2021, Including Big Options Grant
Discovery Chief Got Options Valued at $190 Million on Eve of AT&T Deal
Discovery Inc. DISCB -1.47% gave Chief Executive David Zaslav 14.8 million stock options on Sunday, the day before the company and AT&T Inc. T -1.14% announced a plan to merge Discovery with AT&T’s WarnerMedia unit, according to a securities filing.
The company valued the option grants at roughly $190 million on Wednesday evening, taking into account the company’s share-price volatility and potential stock appreciation over their eight-year term.
The shares underlying the options were valued at $489 million on Wednesday afternoon, as Discovery’s Class A stock traded around $33 a share. Discovery shares have fallen about 16% since the start of trading on Monday, shortly after the deal was unveiled. The options are currently trading out of the money, meaning the share price would need to rise over the next eight years for Mr. Zaslav to profit from exercising them.
…Mr. Zaslav has run Discovery since 2007 and previously ran a business unit for NBC Universal Inc. He has ranked among the current S&P 500’s 10 highest-paid CEOs in 10 of the past 11 years, according to data from MyLogIQ, which provides data from securities disclosures.
Taser Chief Gets $246 Million Stock-Option Award
The company that sells Tasers to police departments around the world paid its chief executive $246 million last year, according to a proxy filed last month, one of the biggest compensation packages for a corporate leader.
The pay came in a package of stock options that Axon Enterprise Inc. gave longtime CEO Patrick Smith last year. However, the options only vest if the company’s market value surges and it achieves other performance targets, according to the proxy filing.
Mr. Smith’s reported compensation far surpasses that of the highest-paid CEOs last year at much larger companies and is about 20 times the median pay for an S&P 500 chief, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. Axon is too small to be in the S&P 500 index.