LATimes: 'Netflix chief Reed Hastings got 68% raise in 2011, pay cut for 2012'

[jannyk]

<The shift is the result of a difficult year for Netflix, during which an unpopular price increase and a botched plan to divide its delivery systems into a DVDs-by-mail and a separate online brand caused a precipitous drop in the company's stock price and a temporary shift in its previously red-hot customer growth.

Hastings' 2011 salary was $500,000, virtually the same as in 2010. However, the value he realized from exercising stock options grew to $8.8 million from $5 million. His total compensation for the year was just under $9.3 million, compared with $5.5 million in 2010.

Netflix noted in its filing that 2012 "compensation for Mr. Hastings has been reduced in light of the Company’s performance in 2011." As a result, the initial value of his stock option allowance — the final value of which is realized when he exercises them — was cut in half from $3 million in 2011 to $1.5 million this year. Hastings' salary will remain the same.

All of Netflix's senior executives except the CEO will receive pay increases in 2012, leaving Hastings as the only one to take a hit for the company's missteps last year. The Los Gatos, Calif., company lost 800,000 U.S. subscribers during the third quarter and its stock fell 77% from July to the end of 2011. It gained back 610,000 subscribers during the fourth quarter, however, and Netflix shares are up more than 50% so far this year.>


Deservedly so.

[NV Whino]

1. 'bout damn time executives took a hit for bad decisions

That's still a major salary, however, to those of us asking ourselves if we can continue to afford the $7.99 to Netflix every month.

[dmosh42]

2. I wonder why the movie studios don't move to eliminate these 'middle-men'(Amazon, Netflix, etc.)

With the internet streaming, they would have direct contact with a vast audience of eager viewers, and probably a more profitable operation. I don't presume to know the answer, just seems like an obvious move, at least on the surface.