In his first year as a public company, Endeavor founder and CEO Ari Emanuel received compensation in excess of $308 million, almost entirely through a one-time performance-based limited equity grant.
In its annual report with the SEC, Endeavor notes that Emanuel’s realized compensation in 2021 was closer to $67 million, reflecting his salary, bonuses, and stock awards that were granted. Emanuel earns a base salary of $4 million with an annual target bonus of $6 million. The rest of his award is almost all shares, $293.7 million in share awards, the value at the time the grant was made.
Major corporate events such as an IPO or merger often increase senior management salaries, with companies often tying executives into long-term deals at the same time and issuing restricted shares that are transferred based on timing or stock price movements. Endeavor, of course, went public last year.
Thus, Emanuel will join another entertainment industry CEO who received a significant share grant in 2021: Discovery CEO David Zaslav, whose 2021 compensation package exceeded $246 million thanks to a new long-term contract he signed with Discovery. the upcoming merger with WarnerMedia. Like Emanuel, Zaslav may or may not see the full value of this grant.
And Emanuel’s role as a company founder also aligns with similar compensation plans for company founders that have gone public. In 2018, Elon Musk was granted shares (worth about $2.5 billion at the time) which increased his compensation package, as reported by the SEC. And Palantir founder Alex Karp received a $1.1 billion package in 2020, which, like Emanuel’s, included non-ownership shares tied to the company’s IPO.
“While such awards may result in substantial compensation to our executives, we believe they further align our CEO and Executive Chairman with the interests of our shareholders,” Endeavor wrote in its annual report, including charts showing which performance metrics must be met for shares. endow. “Our CEO and Executive Chairman will only profit on their high-performing shares if our share price appreciates in value, and thus much of their remuneration is at risk.”
Other Endeavor executives also received significant IPO-related equity grants. Endeavor Executive Chairman Patrick Whitesell saw his 2021 pay package top $123 million thanks to a similar grant. The company says his recognized settlement was actually $11 million.
Endeavor President Mark Shapiro’s 2021 total salary package was $42 million, including a one-time grant with $17.4 million in recognized compensation, while CFO Jason Lublin’s total compensation was $18 million, with an acknowledged salary of $17.4 million. $7.1 million.
All salary packages are significantly higher than they were in 2020, which was not only before the IPO, but also because top managers have been waiving pay for most of the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Endeavor’s annual report, Emanuel’s 2020 total compensation was $14.4 million, with Whitesell earning $3.2 million.
Public companies typically disclose senior management compensation in annual proxies, although Endeavor has not yet filed proxies for 2021.