Comcast has announced 2022 pay for chairman and CEO Brian Roberts and fired NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell, along with compensation packages for other top executives.
Remarkable, however, was the money that Shell does not receive after dismissal due to an inappropriate relationship with an employee. “Upon its termination, all unvested PSUs and RSUs and all vested and unvested stock options, which had an estimated fair value of $43.3 million at the termination date, were forfeited and cancelled,” Comcast revealed in a document Friday.
Shell was fired for what the company described as “inappropriate behavior with a female employee, including allegations of sexual harassment”. He received $21.6 million in 2021 and $16.5 million in 2020.
Comcast also announced compensation of $32.06 million for Roberts, compared to $34.0 million in 2021, $32.7 million in 2020 and $36.4 million in 2019. The Comcast star received a bonus last year of $2.5 million and an additional $13.3 million in share awards, $8.4 million in option awards and $7.5 million in non-equity incentives.
NBCU owner and pay TV, media and technology giant Comcast disclosed fee details for the most recent year in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It was the second time Comcast’s annual proxy statement, released Friday, detailed Shell’s earnings.
Shares of Comcast fell about 30 percent in 2022 under pressure on media and entertainment stocks. Comcast’s full-year 2022 revenue increased more than 4 percent to $121.4 billion. Consolidated adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased 5 percent for the year to $36.5 billion, with adjusted earnings per share up 13 percent.
In January, Comcast said Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service, had closed 2022 with more than 20 million paid subscribers in the U.S. thanks to its fourth-quarter performance, for which it posted its strongest quarterly profit since its launch in 2020.
