Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is selling about $59.5 million in company stock, his latest move to cash in on the company’s stock rebound.
The sale of the nearly 2.2 million shares was revealed in an SEC filing on Monday, hours after 12 states filed an antitrust lawsuit intended to block Paramount’s $110 billion acquisition of WBD.
WBD shares have sagged 6% in 2026 to date, ending Monday’s trading day at $27.09, but they have more than doubled since word emerged last fall of acquisition interest from multiple suitors. Competitive bidding among Netflix, Comcast and Paramount ended with only Paramount left standing, with the process reviving WBD’s long-moribund stock.
Zaslav’s proceeds from the latest stock sale represent just a fraction of the ultimate reward he will receive upon the merger’s close. Based on a number of variables, his ultimate take-home compensation tied to the merger alone could approach $800 million, the bulk of that in the form of a stock award.
The share sale follows a previous one in March, when Zaslav announced plans to sell about 4 million shares, netting more than $114 million. The shares had been acquired between 2023 and 2026.
Zaslav was installed as head of WBD in April 2022 when the company was formed out of the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery Communications. Zaslav had been CEO of Discovery since 2007.
Along with Zaslav’s compensation, which has routinely ranked near the top of the ranks for corporate execs in the U.S., others on the management team have also made moves to capitalize on the revival of WBD shares. The sellers included CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, Chief Revenue & Strategy Officer Bruce Campbell, Chief Accounting Officer Lori Locke, President of International Gerhard Zeiler, Global Streaming President & CEO JB Perrette, Chief Legal Officer Priya Aiyar and HR chief Amy Girdwood.
