Paramount’s dual class board is a warning sign for merger, plus CEO retention bonanza

About this episode

The episode discusses CEO compensation trends and implications for mergers, highlighting significant equity awards and contracts in major companies.

Trade Wire - BUY/SELL Top Stories: proxy countdown_trade wire_2025 - Google Sheets Dumb pay Xmas week pay dump: CrowdStrike performance-based equity award granted to CEO George Kurtz with target value of approximately $140M; worth up to $280M with 90th percentile TSR and $70M with 25th percentile TSR Warner Bros. Discovery $96M: Make-Whole RSU award to CEO Daivd Zaslav of 1,963,465 shares; after January 2 Follow-On Option award of 3,052,734 options because share price is down Under a new employment agreement executed on June 12, 2025, Zaslav received a special award of 20,898,776 stock options with an exercise price of $10.16 (~$400M). Additionally, on January 2, 2026, he was granted 3,052,734 follow-on stock options with an exercise price of $28.51 (~$40M). To address the higher exercise price of these options compared to the initial grant, Zaslav received 1,963,465 restricted stock units on January 5, 2026 (~$56M). BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY CEO Greg Abel salary increased to $25M Aon plc Gregory C. Case extended contract: $50-100M performance shares; increase salary to $1.75M; capped at 100% target if TSR negative Duolingo $14M CFO golden hello Gillian Munson, Director since 2019 &amp…

Topics covered

• CEO compensation
• mergers and acquisitions
• stock options
• performance-based equity
• corporate governance

Keywords

• CEO retention
• equity awards
• merger warning signs
• stock options
• performance shares

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: CrowdStrike, Warner Bros. Discovery, Berkshire Hathaway, Aon plc, Duolingo, IDEXX LABORATORIES

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