{"id":7996870,"date":"2026-04-09T08:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/?p=7996870"},"modified":"2026-04-09T08:41:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:41:50","slug":"david-zaslav-golden-parachute-paramount-warner-bros-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/industry-news\/business\/david-zaslav-golden-parachute-paramount-warner-bros-merger\/","title":{"rendered":"David Zaslav’s $887 Million Golden Parachute Rejected as ‘Problematic’ in Shareholder Advisory Firm’s Paramount-WB Assessment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services is recommending that shareholders vote in favor of Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, but is rejecting David Zaslav’s “extraordinary” and “problematic” $887 million golden parachute compensation package in connection with the transaction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The firm notes that the $110 billion deal is the result of a “competitive sales process and public bidding war between NFLX and PSKY, which provides shareholders comfort that the proposed deal is the best available.\u201d It also said that shareholders are receiving a “meaningful premium to the unaffected share price” and that there’s a “potential downside risk of non-approval.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it argues that the Warner Bros. Discovery CEO’s payout “represents one of the highest golden parachute estimates ever\u00a0observed” due to a “problematic” $335.4 million tax reimbursement and “single trigger vesting acceleration” for the vast majority of the package’s unvested equity awards, meaning that Zaslav would be paid as soon as a change in control occurs. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Jeff\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tRead Next<\/strong>
\n\t\t\tJeff Shell Will Get at Least $5 Million in Severance After Paramount Skydance Exit<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Under the terms of the package, Zaslav will receive $34,219,178 in cash, $517,204,781 in equity, $44,195 in \u201cperquisites and benefits.\u201d The cash component includes $6 million in salary severance and $28.2 million in bonus severance. Meanwhile, the equity component includes $443,131,800 in options, 60,867,415 in restricted stock units and 13,205,566 in performance-based restricted stock units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ISS argued that “auto-acceleration of\u00a0unvested equity is not a best practice, and the full vesting acceleration of very recently-granted equity intended to\u00a0cover multiple years represents a windfall.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, Zaslav is eligible to receive a tax reimbursement, though the actual amount will \u201csignificantly decline with the passage of time\u201d under IRS rules depending on when the deal closes. Had it closed on March 11, Zaslav would\u2019ve been eligible for a $335.4 million tax reimbursement, bringing his estimated total compensation package to $887 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Excise tax gross-ups represent an extraordinary cost that are inconsistent with common market practice, and most\u00a0companies have eliminated such entitlements as a matter of good governance,” ISS added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on current estimates from WBD\u2019s outside tax advisers, if the Paramount-WBD closing were to occur in 2027, no tax reimbursement payment would be expected to be made to Zaslav.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Jeff\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tRead Next<\/strong>
\n\t\t\tJeff Shell Out as Paramount Skydance President<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

ISS is one of the most influential proxy advisory firms, with many institutional shareholders following its recommendations. Its recommendations, which are updated through an annual survey with institutions, public companies and other stakeholder to gauge their views, aligned with management approximately 96% of the time for S&P500 companies during the 2025 proxy season.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger is expected to close by the third quarter, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. A shareholder vote is slated for April 23. The advisory vote on executive pay is non-binding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the event the transaction does not close by Sept. 30, WBD shareholders will receive a 25 cent per share \u201cticking fee\u201d for each quarter until closing. In the event that the deal does not close at all due to regulatory matters, Paramount will pay WBD a $7 billion termination fee.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"WBD\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tRead Next<\/strong>
\n\t\t\tDavid Zaslav to Get $551.5 Million in Cash, Equity and Benefits From Paramount Merger Payout<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISS says that the “extraordinary” payout is “inconsistent with common market practice”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10131,"featured_media":7730787,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"byline":{"profiles":[{"type":"byline_id","atts":{"term_id":504716,"post_id":7303318}}]},"_links_to":"","_links_to_type":0,"nb_breaking_email_type":"b8b5eaae-7af7-4a7d-8ff2-8ed7e2f9029d","nb_breaking_template":"single-story.html","nb_breaking_from_name":"TheWrap","nb_breaking_subject":"","nb_breaking_preview":"","nb_breaking_list":[],"nb_breaking_header_img":7555420,"nb_breaking_should_send":false,"nb_breaking_content":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\n
\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"WrapPRO<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Discover why entertainment executives and professionals rely on the WrapPRO platform daily for exclusive coverage, analysis, deeper reporting, and access to VIP events & screenings throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n","nb_newsletter_sent_breaking_post_id":[7996896],"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-04-09T15:06:11Z","apple_news_api_id":"7704f0ca-00ac-4eae-87d0-b70fd560c79c","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-04-09T15:41:54Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGw==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AdwTwygCsTq6H0LcP1WDHnA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"hide_featured_image":false,"the_wrap_post_enable_full_width_featured_image":false,"the_wrap_post_enable_featured_video":false,"the_wrap_post_featured_video":"","the_wrap_post_disable_read_more":false,"wp_curate_deduplication":false,"wp_curate_unique_pinned_posts":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[279383,514407,514411,411758,13950],"tags":[3951,510,515661,515659,281725,106,515660,493697],"tw_data_partners":[],"columns":[],"byline":[504716],"class_list":["post-7996870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-deals-ma","category-film-studios","category-streaming","category-tv","tag-david_zaslav","tag-executive_pay","tag-institutional-shareholder-services","tag-iss","tag-mergers-and-acquisitions","tag-paramount","tag-shareholder-advisory-firm","tag-warner-bros-discovery"],"newsletter_builder_byline":"Lucas Manfredi","is_pro_article":false,"apple_news_notices":[],"eyebrow":{"link":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/industry-news\/business\/","text":"Business"},"tw_schema_org_review":{"name":"","type":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7996870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7996870"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7996870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7996944,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7996870\/revisions\/7996944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7730787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7996870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7996870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7996870"},{"taxonomy":"tw_data_partners","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tw_data_partners?post=7996870"},{"taxonomy":"tw_column","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/columns?post=7996870"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=7996870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}