Warner Bros. says sale to Paramount is a victory for shareholders, but the biggest winners are its executives

MW Warner Bros. says sale to Paramount is a victory for shareholders, but the biggest winners are its executives

By Lukas I. Alpert

Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav is set to walk away with a 'golden parachute' payment of at least $551 million

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav stands to walk away with one of the largest "golden parachute" payouts in history when the sale to Paramount Skydance closes.

When Warner Bros. Discovery agreed to be acquired by Paramount Skydance for $110 billion, it proclaimed the deal to be a big win for shareholders. But the biggest winners are going to be Warner Bros.' top executives.

Filings made to the Securities and Exchange Commission late Monday laid out the details of the eye-popping compensation packages - known on Wall Street as "golden parachutes" - that Warner Bros.' $(WBD)$ top managers are set to receive when the deal with Paramount $(PSKY)$ goes through.

At the top of the list is CEO David Zaslav, who will receive at least $551 million in stock, cash and other benefits if the sale is completed. Zaslav already has $116 million in vested deferred-equity awards, which would bring the total paid to him at the deal's closure to $667 million.

And Zaslav could receive as much as $335 million more in tax reimbursements to cover excise taxes applied to "golden parachute" payments - which would amount to a total deal payout for him of $886 million. Including the vested deferred-equity awards, the potential total paid to Zaslav at closure could be as much as $1 billion.

The tax-reimbursement payment, however, will only be made if the deal closes quickly, as the figure goes down with every day that passes. In its filing, Warner Bros. said if the deal were to be pushed into 2027, the tax payment due to Zaslav would drop to zero.

Paramount has set a closing target date of Sept. 30, although the deal faces several regulatory hurdles, so it is not inconceivable that it will get pushed past that date.

Warner Bros.' head of streaming and games, J.B. Perrette, stands to earn $142 million in cash and stock. Bruce Campbell, the company's chief revenue and strategy officer, is set to walk away with $121 million in compensation.

Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels is also slated to take $120 million worth of cash, stock and other benefits with him.

Investors will receive $31 per share when the deal closes. That figure was the result of lengthy negotiations Zaslav led with Paramount CEO David Ellison and his father, Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle $(ORCL)$ and one of the richest people in the world, plus the executive team at Netflix $(NFLX)$.

Initially, Warner Bros. Discovery agreed to sell its studio and streaming business to Netflix for $82.7 billion. In that deal, Warner Bros.' declining television business would have been spun off into a separate company that would have continued to be owned by Warner Bros.' shareholders. But in late February, Paramount raised its offer and convinced the Warner Bros. board to reopen negotiations, leading Netflix to walk away from the deal.

-Lukas I. Alpert

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March 17, 2026 12:11 ET (16:11 GMT)

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