Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) CEO David Zaslav significantly reduced his holdings of the company’s stock this week, successfully cashing out part of his shareholding gains as Paramount Skydance’s (PSKY) acquisition of the company is about to be completed. According to the latest disclosed information, Zaslav sold shares worth over $113 million in this transaction.
This reduction only represents a portion of Zaslav’s total holdings. Based on the acquisition price proposed by Paramount, he still holds common stock valued at over $220 million. Furthermore, after the transaction is completed, he could potentially gain hundreds of millions of dollars more through additional stock awards.
It is worth noting that the price at which Zaslav sold his shares this time is significantly lower than Paramount’s acquisition offer. On Thursday, Warner Bros. Discovery’s stock closed at $28, noticeably below the $31 per share acquisition price proposed by Paramount. This means Zaslav’s sale price represented a discount of about 10% compared to the potential acquisition price. Doug Arthur, a media analyst at Huber Research Partners, commented on this, saying, “For a deal not expected to encounter many obstacles, a discount of about 10% seems quite substantial.”
Besides Zaslav, eight other company insiders sold a total of over $98 million in stock this week, including Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels, who sold nearly $28 million worth of shares. As of the time of writing, Warner Bros. Discovery has not commented on the aforementioned executives’ share sales.
Since the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery to form Warner Bros. Discovery in 2022, Zaslav’s management style has faced criticism from some investors. However, as the company became an acquisition target, its stock price saw a significant increase, which also substantially boosted the value of the company stock he holds.
According to Paramount’s final acquisition proposal, compared to the stock price before the market first heard acquisition rumors in September last year, shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery will receive a premium of nearly 150%. Mario Gabelli, founder of Gamco Investors, commented in an interview, “The real winner is Zaslav. He successfully drove a bidding process, and the company’s stock has performed very well.”
During this bidding process, Paramount consistently emphasized that its offer was superior to Netflix’s (NFLX) proposal and argued that its deal would face fewer regulatory hurdles. It is reported that Netflix had reached a preliminary acquisition agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery in December 2025, but due to its already massive user base in the streaming market, that deal might have faced stricter antitrust scrutiny.
Currently, Paramount has received antitrust approval from the U.S. Department of Justice but still needs regulatory clearance from the UK, Europe, and some U.S. state attorneys general. According to the terms of the agreement, if the transaction fails due to regulatory reasons, Paramount would need to pay Warner Bros. Discovery a breakup fee of up to $7 billion. The company expects the transaction to be completed in the third quarter of this year.
