Disney CEO Bob Iger could take home $60-million bonus

Walt Disney Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Iger, who inked a two-year contract extension on Thursday, could depart the company in 2018 with a bonus of up to $60 million.

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the performance-based retention bonus is tied to Disney meeting certain operating income targets.

Iger’s bonus would be triggered if the company were to generate cumulative operating income of more than $76.010 billion over the five-year period ending Sept. 29, 2018. The bonus escalates linearly.

The bonus maxes out at $60 million, which Iger would receive if the company generates cumulative operating income of more than $78.314 billion over the stretch.

The bonus is by no means guaranteed. For Iger to receive it, Disney’s operating income would have to increase dramatically. For the five-year period from 2009 to 2013, the company generated cumulative operating income of $43.771 billion.

However, the company’s annual operating income has increased considerably in recent years. In 2013, Disney’s operating income was $10.724 billion, up 8% from a year earlier when it was $9.964 billion. It increased by 13% from 2011 to 2012.

Save for the prospective bonus, Iger will continue to receive the same annual compensation as under his previous contract. A large portion of his pay is tied to Disney’s financial performance. For the fiscal year that ended Sept. 28, 2013, Iger’s base salary was $2.5 million, but his total compensation was $34.3 million.

Iger has been chief executive of Burbank-based Disney, the world’s largest entertainment company, since 2005. Iger’s new contract runs through June 2018, and he is expected to leave Disney at that time.

Before signing the contract extension, he’d been set to vacate his post at the end of June 2016.

He told The Times on Thursday it has been a “privilege” to run Disney and said he relished “having more time to do that.”

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