Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav sold another $21.7 million worth of the media giant’s stock on Thursday as its pending $110 billion merger with Paramount Skydance is stuck in legal limbo.
Per a new SEC filing, Zaslav sold another 773,173 shares of WBD stock. The latest sale, which brings his total to $195 million worth of the company’s stock to date, comes after he previously sold $59 million worth in July and $114 million worth in March.
The sale is part of a Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement previously adopted on March 12, which has a termination date of Aug. 14. Under the plan, up to 4,572,448 shares of common stock granted to Zaslav in the form of restricted stock units and options are able to be sold upon reaching certain price targets.
It comes as the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger is on hold due to a lawsuit filed by 12 state attorneys general who are seeing to block the deal, which is set to go to trial in March.
Paramount has agreed to push the closing back until five days after the outcome of a trial, or June 1, 2027, whichever comes earliest. But Ellison and Paramount Chief Legal Officer Makan Delrahim have also said they’re open to reaching a settlement with California Attorney General Rob Bonta before then.
Starting Oct. 1, Paramount CEO David Ellison will be on the hook to pay a 25 cent per share ticking fee, which translates to a payout of $650 million per quarter or $7 million per day until the deal is closed. Per the terms of the merger, the final closing deadline is June 4, 2027.
In addition to calling for a settlement, Ellison has also threatened to move Paramount’s operations out of California if Bonta does not come to the table to negotiate a settlement by the Oct. 1 deadline. Bonta has called the threat “blackmail.”
While Bonta is open to settlement talks, he emphasized that Paramount would need to propose structural remedies, such as divestments, instead of behavioral remedies, such as Ellison’s pledge for 30 theatrical film releases per year.
If the merger closes, Zaslav would receive a golden parachute payout of at least $551.5 million. If the deal does not close at all due to regulatory matters, Paramount would pay WBD a $7 billion termination fee.
Zaslav, who is among the highest paid executives in Hollywood, raked in a total pay package of $165 million in 2025, which included a one-time grant of $109.6 million in options awarded for his work on the company’s original plan to separate Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets from its linear networks business. In non-binding votes, WBD shareholders voted against both Zaslav’s golden parachute and 2025 compensation packages.
Shares of WBD stock closed at $27.75 per share on Thursday, below the Paramount deal’s $31 per share price. The stock is up 130% in the past year and 2.4% in the past month, but is down 2.6% year to date.
