Live Nation Entertainment’s Joe Berchtold made more than $36 million in December, cashing in more than 300,000 shares of LYV stock over a three-day period, according to insider trading documents provided to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The entertainment giant’s President and Chief Financial Officer had received the stock options as part of his compensation approximately 10 years ago, and they would otherwise expire in January of 2024 had he not made the transactions, according to the SEC paperwork.
Berchtold has become one of the key public faces for the entertainment giant in recent years. From defending the company’s business practices at an extraordinary hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in January to openly questioning scope of the ongoing Department of Justice investigation of Live Nation more recently, Berchtold has issued the majority of public comment for the company in 2023. Typically, his role has been to deflect any and all criticism, attempting to re-route blame for any consumer issues in ticketing away from his outfit by claiming that ticket resale is the real villain.
With the company since 2011, Berchtold was made Live Nation Entertainment’s CFO in 2021, replacing longtime executive Kathy Willard in that role. Just under a year ago, Berchtold saw his contract with Live Nation extended by five years with a $2 million annual salary and a $6 million lump sum bonus among its terms. The options exercised this month had been issued early in his time with the company.
Per the SEC filing, Berchtold saw 119,100 shares executed each day on December 13, 14, and 15. All shares were sold on the same day they were executed. On December 13, they were sold at prices ranging from $87.48-89.48 per share, netting roughly $10.5 million. On the 14th, the shares were sold at prices ranging from $90.80-93.57 per share, netting another $11.1 million. The December 15th sales went at prices ranging from $91.91-93.65 per share, bringing in a final $11.1 million windfall.
In total, the 357,300 shares went for a reported sum of $32.62 million over the three day span. At issue a decade ago, the shares were worth approximately $7.46 million.
Live Nation Entertainment has faced significant criticism this year over its executive pay, following reports of CEO Michael Rapino earning nearly $140 million in pay in 2022, with Berchtold earning a reported $52.4 million that year including more than $40 million worth of stock awards. The enormous pay gap – Rapino made more than 5,000x the median employee pay at Live Nation in 2022. (Berchtold’s pay was a mere 2,041 times the company median of $25,673).
“Live Nation Entertainment sported the fattest CEO paycheck AND the widest pay gap,” reads part of a scathing “Executive Excess” report detailing some of the widest executive pay gaps for the prior year, which specifically called out Live Nation Entertainment as one of the most egregious examples. “Michael Rapino hauled in $139 million, 5,414 times as much as his firm’s $25,673 median pay.”
In response to strikes and union organizing drives, corporate leaders routinely insist that they simply lack the wherewithal to raise employee pay,” the report continued. “And yet top executives seem to have little trouble finding resources for enriching themselves and wealthy shareholders.”
Live Nation Entertainment stock (NYSE: LYV) is trading at $94.32 as of mid-day on Tuesday, December 19. It is up close to 5% in the past five days, riding a market surge reportedly tied to optimism that interest rates will be cut in 2024.
