#Netflix Shareholders Reject Exec Pay Packages, Days After Writers Guild Urged “No” Vote

In a rare rebuke of corporate executive compensation, Netflix shareholders rejected the pay packages for top executives at the company, including co-CEO Ted Sarandos, former co-CEO Reed Hastings, and Greg Peters, who was COO of the company last year and was elevated to the co-CEO role earlier this year.

The “no” vote on the “Say on Pay” proposal is non-binding, but in the past such no votes have led to changes in how executive pay is handed out in the future. It was not immediately clear how wide a margin the vote failed by.

In fact, Netflix dealt with this exact issue in 2019, engaging with shareholders after they rejected its compensation plans.

The vote also comes just a few days after the WGA urged Netflix shareholders to vote down the pay packages, with WGA West president Meredith Stiehm writing that “while investors have long taken issue with Netflix’s executive pay, the compensation structure is even more egregious against the backdrop of the strike.”

The union sent a similar letter to Comcast shareholders, with that company set to hold its shareholder meeting next week.

It is also not clear just how influential the WGA letter was in getting the “no” vote, especially given that it was sent just days before the shareholder meeting, after when many institutional shareholders would have voted.

More to come.