Zaslav Gets $606.1M Payout as Paramount Closes WBD Takeover

Paramount officially closed its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, and former CEO David Zaslav received a $606.1 million payout for shares he held in the company, according to Variety.

The exit package includes stock options valued at $381.7 million. Zaslav had also sold nearly $200 million worth of WBD stock since the Paramount deal was clinched earlier this year.

Several other departing Warner Bros. Discovery executives are leaving alongside Zaslav, among them CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, Bruce Campbell, Pamela Abdy, Michael De Luca and Scott Miller.

Deal Background

Warner Bros. Discovery clinched its deal with Paramount in February 2026. At the company's annual shareholder meeting in June 2026, a majority of shareholders voted against golden-parachute packages for Zaslav and other named executives. The completed sale also shelved a planned split of WBD into two publicly traded entities.

The company had reduced its gross debt from $53 billion in mid-2022 to $33.1 billion as of June 2026; that debt has now been assumed by the newly formed Skydance, which faces $80 billion in debt. For full-year 2022, WBD posted a pro-forma EBITDA loss of about $2.1 billion, and in 2025 it generated an EBITDA profit of $1.4 billion. Zaslav's 2025 pay package totaled $165 million, including a one-time stock option grant valued at $109.6 million awarded in June 2025.