Welcome to Netflix's 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I will now turn the call over to Netflix's Chief Legal Officer and Secretary, David Hyman, to begin the meeting.
Good afternoon. My name is David Hyman, and I am the Chief Legal Officer and Secretary of Netflix, Thank you. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the company's 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. We have the following officers and directors in attendance. Reed Hastings, Co CEO and Chairman Ted Sarandos, Co CEO and Chief Content Officer Spence Newman, CFO Greg Peters, COO and Chief Product Officer Rachel Wetstone, Chief Communications Officer.
We also have Directors Jay Hoag, Anne Sweeney, Leslie Kilgore, Tim Haley and Ann Nather on the line. Also present are Alex Bender from Ernst and Young, our independent registered public accounting firm and Spencer Wong, Netflix's Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations. Alex will also be available to answer any questions for our auditors at the end of this meeting. The annual meeting is now called to order. This meeting is being held to consider the proposals listed in the proxy statement previously delivered to you and to conduct such other business as may properly come before the meeting.
Broadridge Financial Solutions has provided a signed affidavit that the notice of the meeting and Internet availability of the proxy materials were mailed Beginning April 23, 2021, and it went to all stockholders of record as of April 8, 2021, our record date. The Inspector of Elections, Lou Larsen, a representative of Broadridge, has confirmed a quorum is present. So the meeting is duly constituted and the polls are now open. We have 3 management proposals on the ballot that will be voted on at the meeting. The election of directors, ratification of the appointment of Ernst and Young as our independent auditors for the year ending December 31, 2021 and 3, the advisory approval of our executive officer compensation.
We also have 3 stockholder proposals on the ballot. The sponsors of these proposals wish to make a brief presentation, So we will call on you now. Operator, please open the line for Mr. McRitchie for Proposal 4.
Is my line open?
Yes, your line is open.
Well, thank you. This proposal is on political disclosure. Disclosure is the best is in the best interest of the company and its shareholders. The Supreme Court recognized this in its 2010 Citizens United decision, which said disclosure permits citizens and shareholders to react to the speech of corporate entities in a proper way. This transparency enables the electorate to make informed decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and messaging.
Unfortunately, relying on publicly available data does not provide a complete picture. This proposal asked Netflix to disclose all its political spending, including payments to trade associations and other tax exempt organization, Which currently remains hidden. This would bring Netflix into line with a growing number of leading companies, which present this information on their website. Astroturf is fine for sports stadiums, but not politics. Proposals on this topic, 1 at Ally Energy Cognizant Technology.
Despite opposition, this year shareholders of several other companies also passed Similar proposal. The attack on the U. S. Capital is a big lie challenging the validity of the election results Revealed an entirely new level of reputational risk for corporate political spending, particularly when delegated to 3rd party groups. That should signal a warning.
And let me signal another warning here. Vote now while I'm talking. Companies often close the polls immediately to keep you from voting. Of course, that doesn't make any sense. The whole purpose Presenting proposals at the meetings is to allow shareholders to consider the arguments and then vote.
Closing the polls immediately Make some mockery of the process. Unfortunately, many companies care more about imposing their will than reflecting the wishes of shareholders. I'm stalling a bit to give you a little more time to vote. However, I don't want to be accused of wasting your time or filibustering. So I'll close now once again, vote for proposal number 4 asking the Board to disclose political spending Our continued political democracy may depend on.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McGrivchie. Operator, would you please open the line for Mr. Chevedden for Proposal 5.
Your line is now open.
Hello. This is John Chevedden. Can you hear me okay?
Yes.
Proposal 5, a simple majority vote. Cheryl has requested our Board take each step necessary so that each voting requirement in our charter and bylaws that calls for a greater than silver majority vote be replaced by requirement for a majority of the votes cast forward against such proposals or a simple majority. Shows are willing to pay a premium for shares of companies that have excellent corporate governance. Super majority voting requirements Have been found to be 1 of 6 entrenching mechanisms that are negatively related to company performance according to what matters and Corporate Governance by Lucian Bebchak of the Harvard Law School. Supermajority requirements are used to block initiatives Supported by most shareholders but opposed by Status Quo Management.
This proposal topic received overwhelming 99% support at the 2019 Fortive Annual Meeting. Church and Dwight Charles gave 99% support to a 2020 proposal on this same topic. In the past 4 weeks, this proposal topic has won 84% supported HollyFrontier Corporation, 89% supported Bungie Limited and 99% supported ConocoPhillips. The current super majority vote requirement does not make sense. For instance, with our 67% super majority vote requirement in the election calling for 67 Since shareholder approval, almost 90% of the shares that typically cast ballots at Netflix would need to vote for approval.
This proposal has won more than 80% support 4 times at Netflix since 2013 In spite of a bad faith edit job on the shareholder proposal by Netflix management, 81% support in 2013, 80% supported in 2015, 82% supported in 2016, 88% supported in 2019. Does the Netflix Board seek a reputation for ignoring such majority shareholder votes? Apparently, Netflix Chillers are not pleased with our directors sitting on their hands in regard to this proposal topic in spite of these enormous shareholder votes. 54% of Netflix shares rejected Jay Hogue, who chaired the Netflix Governance Committee, which is for ignoring majority shareholder votes. Based on this 54% rejection, shareholders could consider Mr.
Hogan desirable for reelection to The boards of Electronic Arts, Peloton Interactive, TripAdvisor and Zillow, if they own stocks in these companies. Reed Hastings and Matthias Dothner were each rejected by 33% of shares in 2020. If these directors join the boards of any public company, shareholders who own stocks in these companies could consider Them undesirable directors. 38% of shares rejected management pay in 2020 when 5% to 10% rejection Unfortunately, Mr. Timothy Haley, Chair of the Management Pay Committee, is untouchable by A Netflix shareholder vote until 2022.
If Mr. Haley stands for reelection at 2U Incorporated and Zuora, in 2021, shareholders in those companies could consider Mr. Helly an undesirable Director. Before the meeting closes today, management should disclose whether there has been any improvement in the management pay vote today compared to the dismal vote in 20
Thank you, Mr. Shevardn. Operator, would you please open the line for Mr. Zhao for Proposal 6?
Your line is now open.
Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Jing Zhou. My proposal recommend that Netflix improve the executive Compensation philosophy to include CEO pay ratio and other social factors. I just noticed in 2020, the CEO pay ratios for 2 CEOs, 197 to 1 and 179 to 1.
Some way people may I think this is a double of the CEO pay ratio 190 to 1 in 2,009 for 1 CEO. There is no rational methodology or program to determine the executive compensation. Quick number, Twitter's CEO pay ratio is less than 0.001:one In 2018 2019, our book to CUP ratio is 580:1 in 2018 2019. TSNP Penney's allowance CEO pay ratio 1294 to 1 in 2018 is one cause to its bankruptcy. I worked in Japan for several years.
I know the composition of big Japanese companies, the COP ratio It's less than one tenth of big American companies and we know In German, employees have representatives to the Board to make a decision Regarding the pay or related issues, Aris Todor, the Politica is the first book of politics in which he suggested The ratio of the richest cost to the poorest cost in a normal policy 5 to 1. But Now to Americans, the rich cast becomes oligarch and with the tremendous power of the CEOs and the executives. The American oligarch is driving America To a deeper and deeper social conflicts and the international insecurity. As Warren Buffet admitted, there is a class warfare, all right, That is my class, the rich class and that's making war and we are winning. America's broadening executive compensation is neither responsible for the society More sustainable for the economy, especially under the current social and economic crisis, Reducing the CEO pay ratio should be included to the philosophy of executive compensation.
Please vote for Proposal 6. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Zhao. That concludes the presentation of proposals. We will vote by ballot on the agenda items described in the proxy statement previously sent to you. Any stockholder who hasn't yet voted or wishes to change their vote, they do so by clicking on the voting button on the stockholder meeting link and following the instructions there.
Stockholders who have sent in proxies are voted via telephone or Internet and do not want to change their vote, do not need to take any further action. While we allow time For stockholders who haven't already voted to complete their voting, please note that questions at this meeting will be limited to those of our auditors. We maintain a robust Investor Relations function that allows stockholders to communicate with and ask questions to the company in a variety of ways. Stockholders may submit questions 4 times a year as part of our quarterly earnings interviews. Instructions on how to submit questions are included in the press releases Announcing the date on which we will release the earnings results.
Stockholders may also post questions through our Investor Relations page at ir.netflix.net, where we provide answers to top investor questions as well as an overview of our business strategy and Company Culture. Information regarding environmental, social and governance matters, including our ESG, EEO 1 and inclusion reports and our approach to governance is also available on the IR webpage. The polls for each of the matters voted on at this meeting are now closed. No additional ballots, proxies or votes and no changes or revocations will be accepted. Mr.
Larson, will you report on the vote of the matters brought before this meeting? Yes. Based on preliminary results, the Director nominees were duly elected. The stockholders voted in favor of the appointment of Ernst and Young LLP and the named Legal Officer Compensation. Stockholder Proposals 45 were approved and Proposal 6 was not approved.
Thank you, Mr. Lars. We will be reporting the final vote results in a Form 8 ks within 4 business days of today's meeting. This concludes our Annual Stockholder Meeting. There being no further business, I declare that the Annual Meeting of Stockholders is hereby concluded.
Mr. Wang? There being no relevant stockholder questions for our auditors submitted, We now end this call, and we thank you all for participating. Have a nice day.