Liberty Media and Liberty Interactive announced that their respective board of directors had reached agreements to keep Greg Maffei as their president and CEO through 2019.
Maffei’s prior contract was close to expiring before the new deal was announced on Monday.
“We are extremely pleased that Greg will continue in his leadership role for another five years,” said John Malone, chairman of Liberty Interactive and Liberty Media. “His creativity and strategic vision have been transformational and have created tremendous shareholder value since he joined us in 2005.”
Along with Malone, Maffei was active in Liberty’s pursuit of Time Warner Cable through its ownership stake in Charter Communications, which ultimately failed after Comcast stepped in with its $42.5 billion stock offer. Charter subsequently reached a deal to buy subscribers from Comcast after the Time Warner Cable acquisition is completed early next year. GreatLand Connections will serve approximately 2.5 million customers, making it the fifth-largest cable operator in the nation.
In November, Liberty Media completed its spinoff of Liberty Broadband into a separate, publicly traded company. The spinoff included Liberty Media’s interest in Charter Communications, its subsidiary TruePosition and its interest in another cable company, Time Warner Cable.
“I am thrilled to continue in my role at Liberty,” Maffei said. “I want to thank John and the board members for the support I have received as we have made significant investments and transformative changes. Today, Liberty has a portfolio of businesses that are very well-positioned for the digital mobile era, led by great management teams, with the resources to be opportunistic in the future.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, Maffei will pull down an annual base salary of $960,750, increasing annually by 5 percent, along with an annual target cast bonus equal to $250 percent of that year’s base salary. Last year Maffei’s salary was $868,219 with a total compensation of $3.57 million, mostly due to incentives.
The portfolio of Englewood, Colorado-based Liberty Media also includes Sirius XM, an interest in Live Nation Entertainment and minority investments in Time Warner Inc. and Viacom.
