Charter’s Rutledge sees astronomical compensation package return to Earth

Following a $98.5 million windfall in 2016 that was driven by deal points related to Charter Communications M&A, company Chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge saw his 2017 salary sliced to just ... $7.8 million. 

Charter President and COO John Bickman saw his 2017 salary drop from $47.4 million to $4.8 million, while CFO Christopher Winfrey ($2.1 million from $29.1 million) and senior executive VP David Ellen ($3.1 million from $22.1 million) also saw post merger reductions.

The rich compensation packages were largely comprised of stock awards relating to Charter’s purchase of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, both deals closing in 2016.

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Rutledge, for example, received option awards valued at $80 million—which the company justified, based on the increase of its market capitalization following the mergers. 

The salary figures came from documents filed by Charter to the Securities and Exchange Commission this week. 

“In 2016, Charter successfully completed its transactions with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, the result, a Charter roughly four times larger than the legacy company," Charter said in a statement provided to FierceCable a year ago.