Reports are now filtering through all the business chatter about exactly how much dough Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav stands to make from the company’s big sale. And, inevitably, it’s a jaw-dropping sum no matter who ends up taking control of the media empire.
The term “golden parachute” has rarely been so evocatively applied, and it’s how the Hollywood Reporter describes Zaslav’s potential payday if the WB sale comes to a successful end. In this case that means raking in as much money as possible for shareholders, “especially if a bidding war escalates and drives Paramount’s hostile $30 per share offer even higher, or if Netflix needs to raise its offer.”
THR reported that Zaslav stands to earn “$30 million in ‘golden parachute’ compensation, along with $537 million in equity, for a total of $567 million.” His underlings, who will benefit as much as he will if a bidding war breaks out and raises stock prices, are also poised for riches, topped off by Gunnar Wiedenfels, “Zaslav’s longtime lieutenant, current CFO, and soon-to-be CEO of spinoff firm Discovery Global,” who’s set to get $5 million in cash and $138 million in equity.
This is, mind you, on top of the salaries these people already earn (Zaslav is atop the pyramid with “$51.9 million in pay packages last year”).
The THR story also noted that as part of their takeover bid, David Ellison and Paramount had “promised Zaslav a role as co-CEO and co-chairman worth ‘hundreds of millions of dollars,’ with Zaslav alerting the WBD board about the offer, which he said was not appropriate.” Netflix is still the frontrunner in the deal.
No matter what, Zaslav stands to come out like a king—$567 million is equivalent to approximately eight Coyote vs. Acmes or six Batgirls, to name-check a couple of titles notoriously associated with his reign at WB.
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