As WarnerMedia-Discovery Deal Nears Close, David Zaslav Shapes Up Executive Team With Eye On $3B Cost Savings Target

ISS, an influential shareholder advisory firm, has recommended “withhold” votes for the three Discovery directors up for reelection at the April annual meeting “due to poor stewardship” in compensation.

AT&T has firmed up more details of its spinoff of WarnerMedia, which is poised to combine with Discovery in a $43 billion merger.

Lionsgate has promoted David Edwards to Executive Vice President, Global Marketing. In his new role at the studio, he will report to President of Global Marketing, Marisa Liston, overseeing creative, digital and strategy for its global motion picture marketing department.

EXCLUSIVE: Primetime Emmy nominee Kate Mara and The Green Knight filmmaker David Lowery have boarded Shawn Bannon’s feature documentary, The Smell of Money, which centers around Elsie Herring and her North Carolina community as they square off with the multibillion-dollar pork industry, which has been spraying animal waste on their homes and land for decades.

Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel’s 2021 compensation reached $308.2 million, at least on paper, thanks to the company’s initial public offering last April.

Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, who has long espoused the benefits of streaming’s boom times, said he’s “not nervous” about Warner Bros Discovery possibly pumping the brakes as it looks to take on Netflix and Disney.

EXCLUSIVE: After months of legal anticipation after his December 2021 firing by Jeff Zucker, Chris Cuomo has just launched the official opening salvo in what looks to be protracted battle with CNN for not only $125 million in cash, but his character and family drama as well.

Discovery and AT&T have determined the 13 members of the board of directors for Warner Bros Discovery, the new company that will be created via a pending $43 billion merger.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorSamuel Di Piazza Jr. will serve as the chairman of Warner Bros.

Warner Bros Discovery, the company created by merging Discovery Inc. and WarnerMedia, and signed a new employment agreement through the end of 2027.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorDiscovery CEO David Zaslav received a massive $203 million stock option grant last year that inflated his total 2021 compensation package to a staggering $246.6 million.The stock option grant comes as Zaslav is about to lead a much larger company as the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery nears completion. Although Zaslav will not see any liquidity from those options for years to come — and the payout only comes in success — the sheer size of the package is sure to draw more criticism about excessive executive compensation.Zaslav received another $13.1 million in stock awards last year, in addition to $22 million in other compensation, on top of a previously reported $4.4 million bonus.

Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s total pay package came to more than $246 million for 2021 as the company prepares to close its merger with WarnerMedia.

Eventually, HBO Max and Discovery+ will come together as a single streaming offering, but the integration will “take a while,” CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said at an investor conference today.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterDiscovery investors voted in approval of the company’s $43 billion acquisition of WarnerMedia from AT&T to create Warner Bros. Discovery during a special meeting of stockholders Friday, marking one of the final formal steps before the transaction can close.The deal, a spinoff of WarnerMedia from AT&T, is expected to be completed early in Q2, with insiders telling Variety the estimated date is between April 11-28. The merger has already received approval from the U.S.

EXCLUSIVE: Edi Patterson (The Righteous Gemstones) and Cam Gigandet (Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse) are the latest additions to the cast of Universal Pictures’ holiday thriller Violent Night.

Discovery today priced $30 billion in senior unsecured notes in a debt offering to raise cash for its merger with WarneMedia.

Discovery chief David Zaslav to see what he has planned once his company’s merger with WarnerMedia is consummated, and speculation is running rampant about who deep-pocketed streamers Apple and Netflix may be planning to hire.All of this jockeying is coming as the industry is experiencing a “once-in-a-generation seismic shift in the power structure of the business,” according to one former studio chief. As major media companies have launched in-house streaming services, their hunger for buzzy shows and movies has become insatiable.

EXCLUSIVE: Jeff Zucker has finalized a deal with WarnerMedia over the former CNN chief’s sudden fall from grace last month.

Saving money on fuel costs is becoming more and more important as prices soar to eye-watering levels.