WMG Re-Signs Cohen and Bronfman
Warner Music Group (WMG) has re-signed Lyor Cohen to a five-year contract, and promoted him to Chairman and CEO of recorded music for North America from Chairman and CEO of U.S. recorded music. As part of the deal, Cohen doubles his annual salary from $1.5 million to $3 million, and gets a guaranteed annual bonus of at least $1.5 million. Edgar Bronfman Jr. has also signed on for five more years as CEO of Warner.
The contract also awards Cohen 1,500,000 stock options and 1,750,000 performance-based restricted shares of WMG’s common stock, with the latter shares being tied to WMG share-price performance. Cohen’s contract says that his stock options become fully vested if he is terminated due to a change in control of the company, and performance criteria are met.
WMG revealed Bronfman would be paid a salary of at least $1 million, with a bonus of 600% of the base tied to certain performance targets. The terms, which run through March 15, 2013, are the same as those in Bronfman’s just-expired pact. The new contract also grants Bronfman 2.75 million stock options at Friday’s closing price of $5.29 a share.
