AT&T Inc (NYSE: T)’s Warner Media’s CEO, Jason Kilar, will remain until 2022. He revealed this amid AT&T’s plans to spin-off Warner Media and integrates it with Discovery Inc.
Amid the spin-off, the future of Jason looks uncertain in 2022. Sensing this uncertainty, Jason said he would reassess his role next year.
Jason will focus on unfinished business until next year.
David to head combined Discovery Unit
David Zaslav, CEO of Discovery, will head the new combined entity, consisting of CNN, Batman franchises, Sports Programming, Harry Potter, Discovery’s nature and science, cooking, and unscripted home shows.
AT&T expects to close the deal in mid-2022, subject to the approval of regulators and Discovery shareholders.
Pays $9 million bonuses to senior management
AT&T paid $9 million in bonuses to its executives, such as John Stankey, David McAtee, and John Stephens, following the takeover of Time Warner for $85 billion. However, Time Warner failed to deliver dividends for the investors.
The $9 million bonus is on the backdrop of succeeding in lifting the block imposed by the US Justice Department on the acquisition of Time Warner.
According to the filings in 2019, John Stankey received a bonus of $2 million. John Stankey now holds the role of CEO. AT&T’s general counsel, David McAtee, received the highest compensation of $5 million. The company paid $2 million as a bonus to its then CFO – John Stephens.
Most of the shareholders voted against the remuneration report that highlighted bonuses to AT&T’s executives in a meeting held in April 2021.
A professor at the New York University, David Yermack, said AT&T offers higher paycheque for its executives for a long time. He said it took a long time for the shareholders to notice this and get upset.
Yermack said the merger is part of the executive’s job. However, AT&T favored and rewarded them with a handsome bonus.
A finance professor at the City University of London, Anh Tran, said the companies offer bonuses to motivate the executives to get the difficult deals done. He further said termination fees/ other expenses could be high from a failed deal compared to meager bonuses to executives.
