David Geffen says David Zaslav is pretty bummed about losing his Warner Bros. job

The Warner Bros. Discovery CEO will walk away with hundreds of millions of dollars, but his buddy says he'd rather have the job.

By Drew Gillis  |  April 21, 2026 | 12:31pm
Photo: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for The New York Times
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David Geffen says David Zaslav is pretty bummed about losing his Warner Bros. job

If you thought that the melancholy about the Warner Bros. Discovery-Paramount Skydance merger extended to only Hollywood creatives and progressive legislators, rest assured that WBD CEO David Zaslav is also pretty bummed. Sure, he’s poised to walk away from the deal with well north of $500 million while thousands of other employees are likely to lose their jobs, but “If you asked him if he’d rather have the job or the money, there’s no doubt about that: He’d rather have the job,” says investor and DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen. “I really believe that.” 

The quote comes from a new story in Variety that’s overall very kind and flattering to Zaslav, who really liked being CEO of WBD and wishes the gig wasn’t coming to an end so soon. It is true that while Zaslav was CEO, stock prices rose and many investors—including some WBD employees with stock options—are poised for a payout. It’s also true that Warner Bros., overall, has had a pretty good couple of years, with both big Oscar winners—One Battle After Another and Sinners—coming from the studio. But these wins served to make WBD a more attractive asset for a potential buyer. “They wanted these businesses because of what Zaslav had managed to accomplish with them in not a very long time,” says Geffen. 

Variety reports that Zaslav was hoping that Warner Bros. would ultimately be sold to Netflix, where it would have been separated from Discovery as it was before the companies’ 2022 merger, but continuing to say no to Paramount and David Ellison could have triggered a lawsuit from WBD shareholders because of the financials at play in Paramount’s offer. Still, Geffen and other allies argue that Zaslav has been framed as a villain that he is not. “This is a tough town,” says Geffen. “It’s tough to win here. It’s tough to lose here. If you win, they shit on you. If you lose, they shit on you. How do you win? The win for David is not the money. The win for David was that he was succeeding with everything that he was doing.” And what’s the cost of a Batgirl and a Coyote Vs. Acme for all that winning?

 
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