Mike Fries, CEO of Liberty Global, John Malone’s international cable giant, saw his overall pay package for 2020 shrink to $44.9 million, compared to a pay packet of $123.2 million in 2019 that was part of a front end-loaded, multi-year compensation package.
The $123.2 million overall compensation package for 2019, part of a new five-year contract renewal, included a multi-year remuneration target, certain levels of stock appreciation and amounts aggregated into a single year lump amount. Fries total recurring compensation in 2019 was $44.7 million.
Fries earned a salary of $1.54 million last year, down from a salary of $2.3 million in 2019. And he took home no bonus in 2020, after nabbing a $5 million bonus in the year-earlier period. The Virgin Media owner unveiled Fries’ overall compensation in an SEC filing issued on Friday.
The biggest part of Fries’ pay packet remains stock awards, where he received $16.85 million last year, compared to $79.1 million in stock awards earned in 2019. And the Liberty Global CEO received $15.5 million in option awards in 2020, compared to $20.1 million in option awards nabbed in 2019.
Fries also received $10.2 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation last year, compared to $15.2 million received in 2019.
Liberty Global recently agreed to make an all-cash public tender offer for all publicly held shares of Swiss pay TV and telecom company Sunrise Communications in a 6.8 billion Swiss franc ($7.4 billion) deal.
