John Malone’s Liberty Media, which owns audio entertainment giant SiriusXM, the Atlanta Braves baseball team and the Formula One racing circuit, disclosed that president and CEO Gregory Maffei’s 2019 compensation amounted to $44 million, compared with $20.2 million in 2018.
That was an increase of 118 percent.
He made $19.8 million in 2017 and $16.9 million in 2016.
His compensation for last year jumped thanks to a new employment contract that boosted his option awards from $8.8 million to $27.8 million. “In December 2019, we entered into the 2019 Maffei Employment Agreement pursuant to which Mr. Maffei has agreed to serve as our chief executive officer and president for a five-year period … ending December 31, 2024,” the company said in a regulatory filing.
Maffei also got a $2.2 million bonus in 2019 after not getting one in at least the two previous years.
Liberty Media in the filing also disclosed the annual pay for chairman Malone. He made $1.4 million, up 27 percent from $1.1 million in 2018. He had made $797,082 in 2017 and $747,156 in 2016.
Maffei late last year warned that Hollywood’s escalating and costly streaming wars would eventually undermine the pay TV industry. “OTT will drain linear TV first, but OTT players will drain each other in a circular fire squad, in our judgment,” he told his company’s investor day gathering of analysts.
Related Stories
