Needham analyst Laura Martin and Managing Partner of Benchmark Investments Kevin Kelly discuss the case for Netflix and where the streamer’s stock is headed in The Claman Countdown.
Netflix shareholders on Tuesday declined their support for the company’s 2023 executive pay package.
Netflix said the vote count will be announced in a regulatory filing.
The non-binding “pay say” vote — which the New York Times says can be overridden by the board of directors — follows a call from striking writers to reject proposed top executive compensation.
“While investors have long struggled with Netflix executive compensation, in the context of the strike, the compensation structure is more outrageous,” wrote Meredith Stiehm, president of the Writers Guild of America West, in a letter to shareholders.
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Signage in front of the Netflix Inc. office building in Los Angeles on April 19, 2021. (Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The union said a vote would be “inappropriate” during the week-long strike, which has garnered the support of top Hollywood actors.
Stiehm wrote that if Netflix could spend more than $166 million on executive compensation last year, it could afford to pay $68 million a year to writers seeking better compensation.
| ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NFLX | NETFLIX INC. | 400.47 | -2.66 | -0.66% |
The Writers Guild of America West responded to the news on Twitter, saying the amount would double Netflix’s annual share of any proposed writer improvements.
“It is rare that these shareholder proposals fail – [fewer] Proposals for an executive pay rise of more than 4% fell through in 2022. “Clearly investors don’t believe this management team is worth more than $160 million a year,” the account tweeted, noting that the Netflix board “has to spend less time thinking about payment options.” give his executive team more money and instead take action against the writers’ strike that’s delaying big shows like Stranger Things.”
Netflix headquarters in Madrid on April 30, 2021. (Alejandro Martinez Velez/Europa Press via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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According to Collider, Stranger Things season four became the most-watched English-language series on Netflix last year.
The guild has made board pay for Hollywood executives a topic of negotiation and sent a similar letter to NBCUniversal parent company Comcast Corp. sent.
In 2022, Netflix’s executive compensation package received just 27% of the shareholder votes cast.
Netflix Co-CEO Greg Peters speaks during a keynote address on the future of entertainment during the second day of Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona, Spain, February 28, 2023. (Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Netflix then announced that it had made changes, including introducing a salary cap for its co-CEOs and a performance-based bonus plan.
CEO Reed Hastings is set to receive a salary of $500,000 and $2.5 million in stock. Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters both receive annual salaries of $3 million. Sarandos will receive an additional $20 million in stock and is eligible for a bonus of up to $17 million, while Peters will receive $17.3 million in stock and a bonus of up to $14.3 million receives US dollars.
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Portal contributed to this report.