Comcast Paid Roberts $26M in 2006

Shareholders Pressure Comcast to Accept Executive ‘Report Cards’

By Steve Donohue -- Multichannel News, 3/30/2007 4:13:00 PM

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts received $26 million in total compensation in 2006, including a salary of $2.5 million, the company disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Thursday.

The compensation package for Roberts and several other Comcast executives was detailed in response to a shareholder proposal that could force Comcast to allow its stockholders to issue report cards on its top executives. The top cable operator will put the proposal up for vote at its annual meeting May 23.

Also up for vote: a proposal that would force Comcast to issue a “pay differential report” that would detail the differences in salary between its highest-paid and lowest 10% of current employees.

Comcast shareholders also want the board to require that the chairman of the company not be a paid employee, which would force Roberts to drop the chairman title if it was ratified.

And shareholders will vote on a proposal that would prevent the issuance of new stock options to Comcast employees.

Roberts’ compensation package also included a $3 million bonus, $3 million in stock awards, $8.4 million in nonequity incentive-plan compensation and $2.9 million in other compensation, which included $93,210 for use of company planes.

Comcast co-founder Ralph Roberts, chair of the executive and finance committee of the board, received $24.1 million in total compensation in 2006, according to the SEC filing.

Steve Burke, Comcast’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, received about $19 million in total compensation, including a salary of $2 million.

Former executive VP and chief financial officer Lawrence Smith received a $1.2 million salary in 2006 and $11.5 million in total compensation, and co-COO and treasurer John Alchin received $9.7 million in total compensation, including a salary of $1 million.

Executive vice president David Cohen received about $10 million in total compensation, including a salary of $1.2 million.

Comcast detailed its executive compensation in response to a proposal from individual shareholder John Sponcer, who said he believed the compensation packages for Comcast executives are “excessive.”

Sponcer, a Pittsburgh resident, proposed that Comcast shareholders be permitted to give the board’s compensation committee a “report card” that would allow shareholders to “express their views, in an advisory referendum, on the question of whether the company’s senior executives are being compensated at levels that are appropriate in amount.”

Comcast recommended in its proxy statement that shareholders reject Sponcer’s proposal to rank its executives through report cards.

“We do not believe the advisory vote called for by this proposal will enhance our governance practices or improve communications with shareholders, nor is it in the best interests of our shareholders. Indeed, it may very well constrain our efforts to attract, motivate and retain exceptional senior executives to focus on our long-term performance and results,” Comcast wrote in the filing.

Comcast’s board will vote on Sponcer’s idea and proposals from six other shareholders at its annual meeting, which will be held May 23 at 9 a.m. at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.