With Paramount Skydance’s deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery still pending, WBD CEO David Zaslav continues to cash out his stake in the company he plans to exit in the coming months.
Zaslav filed to sell approximately 2.18 million shares of Warner Bros. Discovery stock worth $59.47 million, according to Monday’s filing with the SEC. This comes after Zaslav filed to sell $114 million worth of WBD shares in March.
If Paramount Skydance’s mega-deal to acquire WBD goes through, Zaslav could be poised to walk away this spring with a golden parachute package that Warner Bros. Discovery has determined is worth more than $500 million. With the sale of Warner Bros. Discovery to Paramount, Zaslav’s net worth is estimated to be over $1 billion.
Zaslav is one of the highest paid CEOs in the media industry. His total salary in 2025 is $165 million, including a base salary of $3 million, $22.6 million in stock, a $25.7 million cash bonus and stock options worth $109.6 million, according to the company’s SEC filings. In a purely symbolic move, WBD shareholders voted against Zaslav’s severance package and compensation in 2025.
In late 2025, Warner Bros.’ Discovery had a deal with Netflix to acquire Warner Bros.’ streaming and studio businesses. However, Netflix withdrew from the bid in February after Paramount upped its bid for all of WBD in a deal worth $111 billion. Paramount said the deal with WBD is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026.
Separately on Monday, a coalition of 12 Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit seeking to block David Ellison’s Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on antitrust grounds. Paramount said it would “vigorously defend this deal,” arguing that the state’s lawsuit “protects dominant streaming platforms and technology companies like Netflix from much-needed competition.”
Paramount and WBD’s partnership awaits UK regulatory approval, with officials saying intervention is likely. Paramount said the Warner Bros. merger had been approved by regulators in 24 jurisdictions, including the U.S. Department of Justice, which did not impose divestment or other concession requirements on Paramount Skydance.
