BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti Takes Salary Cut, Shifting Most of His Compensation to Stock. Will It Make a Difference?

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor BuzzFeed is changing the way it compensates founder and CEO Jonah Peretti, who will now receive most of his pay package in stock, in addition to introducing new incentives for other top execs — a bid to persuade shareholders that the senior leaders will be better incentivized to turn things around at the struggling digital media company.

In an SEC filing Friday, BuzzFeed said Peretti’s annual base salary was immediately reduced from $325,000 to $115,000, “which approximates the median employee compensation for BuzzFeed and its peers.” That will also reduce the annual cash bonus for which Peretti is eligible (the target amount of which remains 100% of his salary).

Meanwhile, Peretti was awarded options to purchase 414,000 shares of the company’s Class A common stock, 40% of which is intended to approximate the $210,000 reduction in Peretti’s salary and the remainder of which is intended to “align” his compensation “with the interests of shareholders.” “With this compensation model, the team will only benefit from value creation thereby aligning with shareholders, as the executive team transforms the company and pushes the industry forward,” BuzzFeed said in announcing the change.

Investors seemed encouraged by the move, as BuzzFeed’s stock rose more than 6% in morning trading to $2.32/share. But the stock is still well off its IPO highs December 2021, when it popped as much as $14.57/share before closing down 11% on the first day of trading.