Lionsgate Says It Understated Jon Feltheimer’s Compensation By $2.7M

It’s not exactly Hollywood accounting. The studio made a mistake, it says today in an SEC filing, that means its CEO’s compensation package for the fiscal year ending in March should be pegged at $66.3M — not $63.6M, as it reported on Tuesday. That’s up 428% vs last year, due in part to the lump of stock awards in his new contract, not 406%.
Lionsgate understated Jon Feltheimer’s pay by $2.7M when it valued his 94,971 restricted stock units using what’s known as the Black Scholes formula. It  estimates prices for stock options over time by assuming that markets will operate efficiently and that options can be bought and sold in ways that minimze their risk. The Black Scholes formula was used, appropriately, to come up with the $41.5M value put on Feltheimer’s option awards.
But Feltheimer’s stock awards should have been assessed at their fair value. Lionsgate says now that, using that method, they’re worth $14.4M —  not $11.7M it reported earlier based on Black Scholes. All other compensation figures remain unchanged.
Lionsgate shareholders can voice their opinion about the packages in an advisory say-on-pay vote at the annual meeting, to be held September 9 in Toronto.

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