Discovery Awarded CEO David Zaslav Stock Options Valued At $190 Million As Part Of Extended Contract, WarnerMedia Deal

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaFresh off of upending the media landscape with their deal to combine WarnerMedia and Discovery, Discovery chief David Zaslav and AT&T head John Stankey will touch down in Sun Valley, Idaho, in July for Allen & Co.’s annual media conference.They will be joined at the annual confab of power brokers and media barons by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, fresh off his $8.5 billion deal to purchase Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and will hit the resort at a time when most

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Discovery CEO David Zaslav, a week after announcing a $43 billion deal to merge with WarnerMedia in a spinoff from AT&T, sees validation in today’s news that Amazon is swallowing MGM.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorDiscovery’s CEO feels a combination of WarnerMedia and his company will create a new media company that is “uniquely competitive with Netflix and Disney,” and articulated the need to have a global footprint in the future in order to compete in the entertainment industry’s streaming wars.Discovery last week stuck a pact with AT&T to take over WarnerMedia operations in a deal that executives hope will pass regulatory muster by mid 2022.

The CW Mark Pedowitz got out in front of any questions about how the WarnerMedia/Discoevry mega-deal would impact the youth-skewing network.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterMark Pedowitz, chairman and CEO of The CW, spoke about the upcoming Discovery-WarnerMedia merger during a programming conference call on Tuesday.Asked how the deal would affect The CW, which is owned in part by Warner Bros., Pedowitz said “At the moment, it does not.

One day prior to its massive merger with WarnerMedia, Discovery gave its CEO David Zaslav nearly 15 million stock options, which are valued at $190 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.A representative for Discovery did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.The Journal said the 14.8 million in stock options were part of Zaslav’s new contract, which was announced on Tuesday, one day after the merger announcement. The deal runs through 2027.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaIt pays to pull off a massive media merger.Discovery chief David Zaslav is certainly being handsomely rewarded for his role in pulling off the merger agreement between his company and WarnerMedia. A day before AT&T announced it was spinning off WarnerMedia and combining it with Discovery, Zaslav received 14.8 million stock options on Sunday as part of a contract extension, which the Wall Street Journal reports are worth $190 million.

it was announced he’ll take over a new company formed from a merger with WarnerMedia.“Mr. Zaslav’s resignation is not the result of any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to its operations, policies or practices,” Lionsgate said in an SEC filing Wednesday announcing the move.

AT&T and Discovery rocked Hollywood with the combination that will see WarnerMedia and Discovery rolled together into a new standalone public entertainment company led by Zaslav — as AT&T exits the sector and Discovery doubles down.

Discovery announced Tuesday that it’s extended the employment contract of president and CEO David Zaslav through December 31, 2027. His previous agreement ran through 2023.

down 18% from 2019). Zaslav’s annual salary stayed at $3 million last year, when his stock awards slipped by about $1 million to $12.5 million.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorDiscovery said it had extended the contract of its CEO, David Zaslav, through 2027, ensuring the executive would be in place well after the proposed merger of the company and WarnerMedia is expected to be completed in the middle of next year.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorDiscovery’s tie-up with WarnerMedia has stirred up a firestorm of chatter about the impact of the deal that took nearly everyone in Burbank and Hudson Yards by surprise over the weekend.After a day of digesting the news and reading tea leaves, industry insiders were focused on the timing of WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar’s departure and the size of his severance package after one year and two weeks on the job.Another surprise that emerged from the fine print on the

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorThe first swing in the talks that led to the union of Discovery and WarnerMedia was an email sent by David Zaslav to John Stankey on Feb. 13.That was around the time that the Discovery CEO and his AT&T counterpart had planned to meet for a golf date at the storied Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament in central California that is sponsored by the telecom giant, as they did last year.

Discovery chief David Zaslav, whose sizable corner of the media business is getting a lot bigger, said he had previously looked at the idea of creating a “global HBO,” but all the best series were taken.