Time Warner CEO Bewkes’s Compensation Fell 1.5 Percent

Time Warner Inc. (TWX)’s Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bewkes saw his total compensation slip 1.5 percent last year when the company’s shares gained 12 percent.

Bewkes, 59, received total compensation of $25.9 million last year, including $2 million in salary and a $13.5 million bonus, with the remainder in stock awards and benefits, according to a regulatory filing today.

Time Warner, owner of HBO, reported a 12 percent increase in annual profit last year to $2.89 billion on $28.9 billion in sales.

The New York-based company, which through its Warner Bros. unit produces “The Big Bang Theory” TV series, derives more than 70 percent of annual operating income from television. Time Warner, which also owns CNN and TNT, said last quarter’s advertising sales rose 2 percent at the networks unit, driven by international growth. Subscription fees for TV shows advanced 5 percent.

The company announced in February it would raise its quarterly dividend by 11 percent to 26 cents a share, and estimates 2012 growth in earnings excluding some items in the “low double-digit” range, from a base of $2.89 a share. Analysts had expected a gain of about 9 percent. Bewkes’s current employment agreement ends Dec. 31 of this year.

Time Warner fell 0.4 percent to $37.59 at the close in New York. The shares have advanced 4 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edmund Lee in New York at elee310@bloomberg.net

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