SEC filings show the WBD-Paramount merger created a five-person payout rivaled in media history only by Endeavor's IPO windfall.
David Zaslav's exit package from Warner Bros Discovery runs to $606.1 million, according to SEC filings cited by TheWrap, the biggest single payday tied to this week's close of the company's $110 billion merger with Paramount Skydance. He wasn't collecting alone.
Four of his top lieutenants did very well too. Streaming and games chief JB Perrette, CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels and distribution boss Bruce Campbell each walked away with between $120 million and $150 million in merger-tied stock compensation, Deadline reported. International president Gerhard Zeiler picked up roughly $90 million.
Add it up and the five executives cleared more than $1.1 billion combined. Deadline notes that in media M&A history, only the IPO and later privatization of Ari Emanuel's effort comes close to matching an executive payday of this scale.
There's fine print. The money is subject to taxes and withholding, stock options vest on different timelines, and Perrette, who's staying on at Skydance as TV and DTC co-chair and chief business officer, has the option to defer his payout rather than take it now. Zaslav, for what it's worth, had already sold about $195 million in WBD stock between August and March under a pre-set trading plan, so this week isn't his first cash event from the deal.
Three of the four deputies are also getting straightforward transaction bonuses on top of the stock. Wiedenfels gets $2.1 million, Campbell $3 million and Perrette $2.9 million, all payable within 60 days of the merger closing, per TheWrap.
It Wasn't Just The Top Five
WBD says the upside wasn't confined to the executive suite. Nearly half the company's 35,500 employees held equity as of this week's close, up from about 8,500 back in 2022. Roughly 500 employees are now sitting on stock worth more than $1 million apiece, and another 1,000 or so have appreciated stock worth half a million dollars each, TheWrap reported, citing company figures.
Other names further down the list did fine for themselves too. Chief Legal Officer Priya Aiyar, who only joined WBD in February 2025, still picked up more than $57 million. Board members got smaller but still sizable sums: former BET chief Debra Lee took home $1.3 million, ex-chair Samuel Di Piazza got $3.1 million, and Ken Lowe, who sold Scripps Networks to Zaslav's Discovery for $14.6 billion back in 2018, collected $18.1 million.
The road to this payday wasn't a straight line. WBD rebuffed an initial $18-a-share offer from Paramount before accepting a higher bid from Netflix at $27.75, then closed with Paramount anyway. The whole arrangement traces back to John Malone's 2022 Reverse Morris Trust structure that married Discovery with WarnerMedia in the first place.
What happens next depends on vesting calendars and on whether Perrette decides to take his money now or let it ride inside Skydance. Either way, the paperwork on this one isn't finished yet.
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