Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders symbolically vote against giving David Zaslav more money

Unfortunately, this gesture is about as binding as Michael “declaring” bankruptcy in The Office. The action was what’s referred to as a “say-on-pay” vote, merely designed to give shareholders a platform to express their approval or disapproval of executive compensation rates. The board is not obligated to take the vote into account, although it “appreciates the views of all its shareholders and takes the results of the annual advisory vote on executive compensation seriously,” as it shared in a statement in response.

The Zaslav compensation package that so many shareholders balked at rose 4.4% to $51.9 million last year. The CEO’s base salary was $3 million, plus $23.1 million in stock awards, $1.9 million in something referred to as “all other” compensation, and a juicy $23.9 million bonus to top it off. At least the last few years’ totals are relatively paltry compared to 2021, in which he received $246.6 million, including $203 million in stock option grants. In a completely unrelated note, Coyote Vs. Acme only cost about $70 million to produce, but Zaslav just needed to shelve it for “the health of our company,” as he claimed in 2023. It’s a decision that took “real courage,” in his words.