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Trade Wire - BUY/SELL

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The money

In response to angry shareholders:

Two weeks after 60% of Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders rejected CEO David Zaslav’s $52M pay plan, the Compensation Committee restructured his plan using Hollywood’s latest CGI, special effects, and most seasoned stunt doubles: his new plan reduces his annual pay targets significantly–from $37M to $17M if he hits 100% of his targets–but the devil is in the details as he is eligible for $37M if he reaches 200% of his targets and is getting a massive option grant of 21 million shares at an extremely low strike price of around $10 per share, giving him the theoretical opportunity to make $1.4B if Warner Brothers’ share price regains its 2021 high of $77.

To walk in the door:

Ciena Corporation’s new CFO Marc D. Graff will get $2M in cash and $10.5M in time-vesting equity.

While Arista Networks’ new COO Todd Nightingale is welcomed with $32M in equity, $30M of which vest simply over time without any performance-based conditions: an amount which is 92 times greater than his base salary.

Boeing’s longest-tenured director Lynn Good joins the Board of Morgan Stanley just two days after the crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner in India killed more than 200 people.

Yum! Brands CFO Christopher Turner has been promoted to CEO to replace David Gibbs. In doing so, the company skipped right over Chief Operating Officer and Chief People & Culture Officer Tracy Skeans who has been at the company 20 years longer than Chris and in her dual roles oversees two key industry areas of risk in customer experience and labor management.

Maybe we have Yum! Brands Chair Brian Cornell to thank for this decision? As CEO of Target Brian has overseen the company’s recent demise due partially to customer-alienating decisions surrounding the lack of support for Gay Pride and the sudden abandonment of the company’s DEI policies due to the perceived threats from a US election.

At Yum Brands’ annual meeting last month Chair Cornell received 17% votes against his reelection, more than 3 times greater than any other director.

Continuing to follow the trend of large cap companies with only 2 women on the board: