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Warner Bros. Discovery Board Sets Date for Paramount Skydance Vote

Warner Bros. Discovery announced that there will be a special shareholder meeting on April 23rd to approve the Paramount Skydance deal.

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David Ellison's Paramount Skydance and David Zaslav's Warner Bros. Discovery are about to take another major step closer to finalizing a $111 billion deal that would see the former buy out the latter. Earlier today, the WBD board announced that a special meeting will be held on April 23rd (at 10 am ET) to allow shareholders to approve the deal. Though the deal will leave Paramount Skydance Warner Bros with a s**tload of debt that Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos told Bloomberg would require cuts "in excess of $16 billion," Zaslav isn't going to have to worry. The current WBD CEO is looking to make $550 million in stock and cash if/when the deal closes (that includes $34.2 million in cash severance payments). And he's not the only WBD bigwig who will be making out big-time if/when the deal closes: J.B. Perrette, CEO and president of global streaming and games, chief revenue and strategy officer Bruce Campbell, and CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels are also looking at gains of more than $100 million.

Warner Bros
Image: Paramount; Warner Bros. Discovery

"The WBD board has been guided by the singular principle of securing a transaction that maximizes the value of our iconic assets and delivers as much certainty as possible to our shareholders," said Samuel Di Piazza Jr., chairman of the Warner Bros. Discovery board of directors, in a statement. "This historic transaction with Paramount not only does that, but it will also expand consumer choice and develop new opportunities for creative talent." Zaslav added, "We look forward to the upcoming special meeting. This transaction is the culmination of the board's robust process to unlock the full value of our world-class portfolio. I want to thank our talented team for transforming the business over the last several years. We are working closely with Paramount to close the transaction and deliver its benefits to all stakeholders."

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Ray FlookAbout Ray Flook

Serving as Television Editor since 2018, Ray began five years earlier as a contributing writer/photographer before being brought onto the core BC team in 2017.
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