Catenaa, Friday, March 06, 2026- Warner Bros CEO David Zaslav unloaded more than $113 million of the company’s shares this week, as his company’s sale to Paramount Skydance marches toward completion.
The sale represents a minority of Zaslav’s Warner Bros. holding. He still owns more than $220 million in common shares based on Paramount’s acquisition price, and will be in a position to cash in hundreds of millions of dollars more in additional stock awards once the deal closes.
Warner Bros.’ shares closed at $28 each on Thursday, well below Paramount’s $31 per share deal price, meaning Zaslav sold at a significant discount relative to the price he would have gotten had he waited for the transaction to be completed.
In addition to Zaslav, eight other Warner Bros. insiders sold a total of more than $98 million in shares this week, including Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels, who unloaded nearly $28 million worth.
Some of the shares Zaslav sold were acquired last month as part of his 2025 compensation award.
Warner Bros.’ board granted him more than $110 million in stock for meeting predetermined strategic and financial targets.
Despite being widely criticized for his management of Warner Bros. after it was created in 2022 through the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, Zaslav was also handed a new grant of performance awards last year that quickly soared to hundreds of millions in value as the media firm’s stock price gained after becoming a takeover target.
Paramount’s final acquisition price gives shareholders a nearly 150% premium over what the shares were trading for in early September, before reports emerged that Warner Bros. was being targeted for acquisition.
The deal hands Zaslav, 66, hundreds of millions in paper gains, as well as praise from some other Warner Bros. shareholders.
