The majority of Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders who voted at the company’s 2025 annual meeting evidently believe CEO David Zaslav and other top execs are earning too much.
At the WBD’s annual stockholders meeting held June 2, investors voted down a non-binding “advisory” measure to approve the 2024 compensation packages of Zaslav and the company’s other named executive officers, according to an SEC filing. Such a measure is referred to as a “say-on-pay” vote, designed to give shareholders a voice in expressing their approval — or disapproval — of exec compensation.
Per the WBD-reported tallies, there were 724.5 million shares voted “for” the executive compensation packages and 1.06 billion shares voted “against” the measure — meaning almost 60% of the votes were against the pay packages. In addition, there were 5.69 million shares that did not vote (abstentions) and 307.38 million broker non-votes.
For 2024, Zaslav‘s pay package rose 4% to $51.9 million, according to the company’s 2025 proxy statement. For 2024, Zaslav’s base salary was $3 million. He received stock awards worth $23.1 million, bonus compensation of $23.9 million and “all other” compensation of $1.9 million.
Zaslav had a 2023 pay package worth $49.7 million, up 26.5% from the year prior. His 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.
variety.com
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