All posts tagged: Warner Bros. Discovery

David Zaslav 2025 Pay Package Revealed Ahead of Paramount Deal

David Zaslav 2025 Pay Package Revealed Ahead of Paramount Deal

Published by Daniella Wilson

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav saw his compensation package soar to $165 million in 2025, tripling the pay package he received in 2024. The package was driven by option awards that were part of a revised employment contract the executive inked last year, which incentivized him to pursue a strategic review for the company, and ultimately which resulted in WBD’s sale to Netflix, and then to Paramount. His base salary remained the same at $3 million, his stock awards were consistent at $22.6 million, his non-equity incentive comp rose slightly to $25.7 million, and his other compensation (driven by security and private jet use) rose to $4 million, but it was the $109.6 million in option awards that really drove the growth. Zaslav had a compensation package valued at $51.9 million in 2024, driven by higher non-equity incentive plan pay of $23.9 million and stock awards of $23.1 million. 2025 could very well end up being Zaslav’s last full year atop the entertainment giant, which has inked a deal to sell itself to David …

David Ellison Held Dinner Party ‘Honoring’ Trump

David Ellison Held Dinner Party ‘Honoring’ Trump

Published by Daniella Wilson

David Ellison held an event at the at the U.S. Institute of Peace on Thursday in honor of Donald Trump, where the president reportedly spoke to guests for nearly an hour. According to a Friday report by The Times, CBS News executives and journalists were in attendance, including Bari Weiss and Norah O’Donnell. The acting attorney general Todd Blanche was also present; the Justice Department, which Blanche oversees, still has to approve Paramount‘s $110 billion megadeal for Warner Bros. Discovery. Invitations for Thursday’s event, that were given out by Paramount and named Ellison as host, described the night as “honoring the Trump White House.” WBD shareholders approved Ellison’s impending Paramount merger on Tuesday, inching the deal closer to being completed. Trump gave remarks at the dinner for almost an hour, The Times reported, where Paramount’s chief legal officer Makan Delrahim; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller were all also in attendance. Anonymous CBS News journalists told The Times they were “taken aback” by the dinner, and worried it …

Netflix’s Ted Sarandos Shifts Focus to Europe After Failed WB Deal

Netflix’s Ted Sarandos Shifts Focus to Europe After Failed WB Deal

Published by Daniella Wilson

Ted Sarandos is so over Warner Bros. Less than one month after Netflix walked away from its takeover bid for the storied studio major, the co-CEO is trying to shift the focus from the streamer’s failed Hollywood merger to its future plans for Europe. In a wide-ranging interview with Politico in Brussels, published on Tuesday, the Netflix Co-CEO was keen to discuss new efforts by the EU to regulate the media industry, but appeared eager to put the story of Netflix’s unsuccessful WBD bid to bed. In the interview, Sarandos insisted there was “no political interference” from the Trump administration in the WBD negotiations, which saw Warner Bros accepting the $111 billion bid by David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance over Netflix’s lower offer. The political dynamics “complicated the narrative [around the deal], not the actual outcomes,” Sarandos said. “I think for us it was always a business transaction.” He also dismissed President Trump’s Feb. 21 post on Truth Social calling for Netflix to fire board member Susan Rice as simply “a social media post… It was …

David Zaslav 2025 Pay Package Revealed Ahead of Paramount Deal

David Zaslav Sells $114 Million in Warner Bros Stock Ahead of Sale

Published by Daniella Wilson

Following nearly a year of dealmaking, a window for top Warner Bros. Discovery executives to sell their stock opened up after the company reported its last quarterly earnings. SEC filings show that most of those top execs, including CEO David Zaslav, took advantage of it. Zaslav filed to sell more than four million shares in the company, with a value of just over $114 million, on Tuesday. Other executives, including CFO Gunnar Weidenfels, streaming chief JB Perrette, chief revenue and strategy officer Bruce Campbell, and international chief Gerhard Zeiler also filed to sell shares worth millions, per forms filed with the SEC Tuesday. The executives won’t receive all of the proceeds, as a portion will be held for tax purposes, the filings indicate. The sales came as WBD now has a signed deal to sell itself in a $111 billion deal to Paramount Skydance, for $31 per share. A year ago, WBD shares were trading at $11 per share. So why the sell-off? WBD has been engaged in a state of dealmaking since last June, …

EU Antitrust Review May Delay Paramount-Warner Merger

EU Antitrust Review May Delay Paramount-Warner Merger

Published by Daniella Wilson

Washington appears ready to rubber-stamp David Ellison’s proposed $110 billion merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. But while the deal may (despite a brewing challenge from California) sail through the U.S. it could encounter a slower, more complicated review across the Atlantic — one that is more likely to delay the transaction than derail it outright. Anticipating that scrutiny, Ellison went on a European charm offensive in January, meeting with political leaders and key entertainment figures in France, Germany and the U.K. — including French President Emmanuel Macron — to lobby for the deal and win over regulators who could potentially delay or derail the merger. Once U.S. regulators complete their review, European Union and U.K. antitrust authorities will take their turn examining the historic studio tie-up. Brussels has broad authority to investigate the competitive impact of a Paramount-Warner merger across cinema distribution, cable TV and streaming markets in all 27 member states. This is not simply a studio deal. It is a studio-to-studio merger layered on top of networks and competing subscription streaming …

Can Makan Delrahim Close the 1 Billion Warner Bros. Deal?

Can Makan Delrahim Close the $111 Billion Warner Bros. Deal?

Published by Daniella Wilson

The timing was almost too conspicuous. Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos had just flown to Washington, D.C. to attend meetings at the White House, likely to gauge the temperature on just what regulatory hurdles the company would encounter to acquire Warner Bros. He faced a bet-the-company decision. Paramount had raised its bid, dethroning Netflix in the jockeying for the fabled studio. Sarandos had days to decide whether to counter. Instead, just hours after he was pictured departing the White House, he dropped out of the bidding war. Paramount had won. Now, all eyes turn to two people: Makan Delrahim, a savvy legal operator who’s familiar with the ins-and-outs of D.C. dealmaking and is the architect of Paramount’s merger blueprint, and Rob Bonta, California’s top prosecutor who will likely lead the effort among state attorneys general to block the deal. Expect a court face-off that will shape the landscape of Hollywood for years to come. On Thursday, amid speculation that the government will rubber stamp the deal for its favored bidder, Bonta planted his flag over the …

Paramount-WBD Merger Would Create a TV Studio Behemoth

Paramount-WBD Merger Would Create a TV Studio Behemoth

Published by Daniella Wilson

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: A big media merger may cause a major reset of the TV studio business. It happened after Disney acquired Fox’s studio assets. It happened both before and after the Skydance-Paramount merger. Now, with Paramount poised to take control of Warner Bros. Discovery, it could happen again with two of the most prolific TV studio operations in the industry. Including co-productions, Warner Bros. Television Group’s various production units and Paramount’s studios together have more than 100 series currently airing or about to premiere and another 25 to 30 more either greenlit for future dates or in development. The studios’ output touches almost every part of the TV landscape, from streaming to broadcast syndication, and includes shows ranging from Euphoria to Dora. The Warner Bros. Discovery board approved the deal Friday, but the merger still faces a potentially rocky path to regulatory approval, both domestically and abroad (Paramount is targeting the third quarter of this year for closing the deal). Assuming it clears all those hurdles, the combined TV studio …

CBS News Producer Exits Citing Pressure to Aim Political Reporting

CBS News Producer Exits Citing Pressure to Aim Political Reporting

Published by Daniella Wilson

Mary Walsh, a veteran CBS News producer of over four decades, is exiting the company, claiming in an exit memo to staffers that instructions to “aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum” are partly why she’s departing. “We’ve been reading a lot of goodbyes lately and here I am headed out the door. It’s too soon, even after 46 years,” Mary Walsh wrote in a memo sent Friday, per The Guardian. “But maybe it’s for the best. We’ve been told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum. Honestly, I don’t know how to do that.” The Guardian further reported that CBS Evening News executive editor Kim Harvey sent a separate message to staff in response to Walsh’s memo. “We wish Mary Walsh well and thank her for many years of service,” Harvey wrote, according to the outlet. “Mary wrote in her farewell note, ‘We’ve been told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum.’ That is simply not true. Here at the …

Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery make Mega Deal Official

Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery make Mega Deal Official

Published by Daniella Wilson

Paramount‘s megadeal for Warner Bros. Discovery is officially a go. The two companies formally unveiled the deal Friday morning, after Netflix formally bowed out of the running Thursday, citing a price that was “no longer financially attractive.” David Ellison, Chairman and CEO of Paramount, a Skydance Corporation, said: “From the very beginning, our pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery has been guided by a clear purpose: to honor the legacy of two iconic companies while accelerating our vision of building a next-generation media and entertainment company. By bringing together these world-class studios, our complementary streaming platforms, and the extraordinary talent behind them, we will create even greater value for audiences, partners and shareholders — and we couldn’t be more excited for what’s ahead.” David Zaslav, President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery said: “I’m very pleased with the outcome we achieved for WBD shareholders and the entertainment industry. Our guiding principle throughout this process has been to secure a transaction that maximizes the value of our iconic assets and our century-old studio while delivering as much certainty as possible for …

Netflix Walks From Warner Bros. and Wins?

Netflix Walks From Warner Bros. and Wins?

Published by Daniella Wilson

After the bidding war over Warner Bros. Discovery ended with streaming giant Netflix bowing out of the race, leaving the field to David Ellison’s Paramount late on Thursday, the David Zaslav-led Hollywood studio is expected to soon make the $111 billion megadeal from Team Ellison official. Wall Street analysts have started chiming in on what the decision means for Netflix, especially since it pulled the plug on its pursuit of WBD very quickly, well ahead of a final Wednesday deadline to improve its own offer, and on a day that saw co-CEO Ted Sarandos travel to Washington, DC. Why did Netflix fold on the high-stakes game of Hollywood poker, and what does it mean for its strategic focus and potential future spending? In a sign that the company has taken back at least some control over its stock narrative, many on Wall Street rejoiced that Netflix can now return to focus on its pure-play streaming strategy. A key data point underlining excitement about that: the streamer’s stock jumped 7.9 percent in Friday pre-market trading to …