Comcast CEO Roberts makes the Top 15 on pay
While we were at The Cable Show last week, Comcast filed a documents with securities regulators detailing its 2008 executive compensation. The filing showed that Chief Executive Brian Roberts received $23.7 million in 2008 up from $20.8 million in 2007 but below his 2006 payout of $26 million.
Roberts, as the AP points out, has long been criticized by shareholders for the size of his pay package. His increase comes after Comcast shares fell some 7.6 percent in the calendar year 2008, but this outperformed most of the major market indexes, which fell between 30 to 45 percent last year.
In February Roberts and other executives agreed to forgo a pay rise in 2009 and cut back on personal benefits, including a previous agreement which had guaranteed the payment of his base salary and cash bonus to his heirs for up to five years after his death — a so called ‘golden coffin’ package.
According to Comcast’s compensation committee, Roberts and other top executives are compensated in line with other executives in similar sized companies both in the entertainment/media sector and beyond.
As Comcast filed on April 3rd, it was not included in the New York Times/Equilar Special Report on executive pay which ran in Sunday’s paper. The Times report was based on data reflecting pay for 200 chief executives that had filed their annual proxies by March 27 and whose companies had revenue of at least $6.3 billion.
Based on the Times’ chart of top earners, Roberts would have come in as the 13th highest paid chief executive — just below the newly appointed Motorola co-CEO Greg Brown ($24.2 million) and above Lockheed Martin chief Robert Stevens ($22.9 million).
In the entertainment/media sector Roberts came in third behind Walt Disney’s Bob Iger ($51.1 million) and News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch ($30.1 million). Motorola’s other co-CEO Sanjay Jha was at the top of the overall list with $104.4, mainly made up of stock options used to lure him to join the company last year from Qualcomm.
Google’s chief: small salary, big expenses
Protecting Google’s head honcho got more affordable in 2008, but the cost of air travel for CEO Eric Schmidt and his entourage rose sharply.
According to Google’s annual proxy statement, released on Tuesday, Google paid out $106,201 “on Eric’s behalf for costs related to aircraft chartered for Google business on which family and friends flew in 2008.”
That’s a good deal more than the $4,000 Schmidt’s friends and family racked up flying the friendly skies in 2007 or the $22,456 in tax “gross ups” for air travel in 2006.
It’s not clear whether the extra costs related to more frequent globe trotting by Schmidt and his kin, or perhaps reflect the volatile cost of jet fuel, which surged in the first half of 2008, before receding later in the year.
G8 it shows not only politicians are expensive in nature but also ceo’s of big firms ……….u understand wat i mean right
Almost $70 MILLION in 3 years! It’s no wonder why my cable bill keeps going up! When I first subscribed to cable, more than 30 years ago I’ll admit, it was $68 a month for EVERYTHING (except the Playboy Channel) and there were NO COMMERCIALS! After the company changed hands from TCI,to AT&T, and finally to Comcast…my bill went up to over $120 a month. Being retired and on a fixed income, I have been eliminating expences, and Comcast is one place I have been cutting back. I think that Comcast is overpriced no matter what package you opt for and it’s sad that old people , who have little to ebtertain rhem, must pay these high prices, while the company’s CEO get more money than he’ll ever be able to spend! There should be a Senior Citizen Package, with a discount…or at least eliminate all the annoying commercials!