Deadline: Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish’s 2023 Pay Totals $31.3M, Down Slightly From Prior Year

Story from Deadline:

Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish saw his total compensation dip slightly in 2023, to $31.3 million from $32 million in the prior year.

The latest figures were disclosed Monday in an SEC filing.

The next-highest tally among top execs was for CFO Naveen Chopra, who collected $8 million, up from $6.5 million in 2022.

Bakish’s salary was $3.1 million and he was given a stock award of $15.5 million and another $12.4 million via the company’s non-equity incentive plan.

Along with executive compensation, the filing revealed the June 4 date of the company’s annual shareholder meeting. The meeting, which has seen more than its share of drama in recent years, could be another source of intrigue as controlling shareholder Shari Redstone considers a number of M&A options. Four members of the company’s board of directors, who would customarily have taken part in the meeting, recently announced they will not run for re-election.

Bakish’s salary had been disclosed in a previous filing, along with the situation with the board.

Paramount is currently in an exclusive 30-day exclusive negotiating window with David Ellison’s Skydance Media for a deal that is so far deeply unpopular with most investors. The window ends May 3, a month before the annual meeting. Early reports of the exit of directors seemed certainly related to the talks but it wasn’t clear how. Many took the departures as a sign that the exiting board members, loyal to non-executive chair Shari Redstone, couldn’t be seen rubber-stamping a deal that shareholders opposed and that, if approved, would lead to litigation.

The four board members who are not running for re-election include Redstone’s attorney, Robert Klieger; former Spotify and Condé Nast executive Dawn Ostroff; former Sony Pictures Entertainment President Nicole Seligman; and banking exec Frederick Terrell. The four departing directors each took home between $282k and $409k apiece last year for their time on the board.