Who is David Zaslav? How much is he expected to take home from Warner Bros-Paramount deal?

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav could earn in hundreds of millions on the sale of his company to Paramount Skydance.

The details of his possible payment were revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing by Warner Bros Discovery.

The elements of this amount includes cash severance, stock awards and share awards as well as a huge reimbursement for taxes, according to the filing.

Paramount announced earlier this month that it had agreed to acquire Warner Bros Discovery in a $110 billion deal after Netflix walked away from its agreement with the owner of HBO Max. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter and will be backed by $54 billion of debt commitments, the companies said.

The deal is still awaiting approval by some regulators and a vote by Warner Bros. stockholders.

Here is everything you need to know about David Zaslav and how much he is going to take home from the Warner Bros deal.

Who is David Zaslav?

A longtime media executive who frequently saw himself in the limelight while featuring in lists of the highest-paid executives in America, David Zaslav is the current CEO of Warner Bros Discovery.

Zaslav was the engineer of the 2022 merger between cable-TV programmer Discovery Inc. with AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia business.

At the time, he was also the CEO and president of Discovery — a role he held since 2006.

Born in New York City in 1960, David Zaslav earned a BS degree from Binghamton University, then graduated with honors from the Boston University School of Law with a JD in 1985.

Zaslav worked as an attorney with the New York firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Leiby & MacRae following his graduation.

After that, he joined NBCUniversal in 1989. As president of Cable and Domestic TV and New Media Distribution, Zaslav was instrumental in developing and launching CNBC and also played a role in the creation of MSNBC. During his tenure there, he also oversaw content distribution to all forms of TV, negotiated for cable and satellite carriage of NBCUniversal networks and forged media partnerships.

In 2006, David Zaslav became the CEO of Discovery, succeeding Judith McHale. During his tenure, he drove the company's growth, operational efficiency and its pivot to direct-to-consumer. It was under him Discovery got listed in 2008 and became a Fortune 500 company.

Under Zaslav's direction, Warner Bros. Discovery launched Max, a combined streaming offering that brought together the libraries of HBO Max and Discovery+.

How much money will David Zaslav take home?

According to a report by Bloomberg citing the filing, David Zaslav could make more than $667.2 million by selling his company to Paramount Skydance for $110 billion.

These payments have different components, including $34.2 million in cash severance, $115.8 million in vested stock awards and $517.2 million in share awards that will be implemented through the stock deal.

Apart from this, Zaslav could also take home a $335.4 million in reimbursement for taxes, the filing says. The reimbursement was calculated as of March 11 and decreases over time if the deal takes longer to close and more shares vest.