All posts tagged: Zaslav

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 Zaslav Gets the Last Laugh

David Zaslav Gets the Last Laugh

Published by Daniella Wilson

On March 5, a week after inking a $111 billion deal, Paramount CEO David Ellison and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav conspicuously lunched in the executive dining room on the Warner Bros. Studio lot, breaking bread over their megamerger that will reshape Hollywood.  Unlike December’s visit from Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters to the WB lot, no glamour photos were taken, but the public appearance of Ellison on his property-to-be underscores the new world order that is about to engulf the industry. The rich and powerful are poised to get richer and more powerful, and much of the rest of the industry is wondering what comes next. The Paramount-Warners marriage is perhaps the quintessential example. A year ago, Ellison was the CEO of Skydance, a studio with a valuation of $4.75 billion. When this deal closes, he will control two of Hollywood’s legacy studios, an empire valued at north of $120 billion. Zaslav is running a company that had a share price of $10 a year ago. Now he is the toast …

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, …