David Zaslav reaps more benefits of Paramount offer by unloading $114 million of WBD stock

For much of Zaslav’s tenure as WBD’s bumbling CEO, it was one failure after another for the storied Hollywood studio, including nonsensical name changes, the unnecessary shelving of completed projects, and the spin-off of the studio’s TV business to boost its value. None of it worked, mind you. Zaslav was hired to sell the studio, but that was supposed to happen after he paid off the creditors. Even with a successful string of hits last year, Warner Bros. Discovery remained under a mountain of debt that will become Paramount’s problem. Thankfully for him, the Ellisons’ shopping spree didn’t end with their purchase of Paramount and TikTok. They wanted to add DC Comics, Harry Potter, and CNN to their growing list of holdings, so Zaslav didn’t really have to do much of anything in the end. 

Zaslav never had much, if any, sympathy for his employees, who are all fearing for their livelihoods at the moment, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that he’d take a multi-million dollar victory lap as his employees face a “bloodbath.” He’ll get paid either way because Paramount is willing to pay $7 billion if the deal doesn’t go through. Yet the employees who made 2025 such an exciting year for Warner Bros. Pictures will probably be spending 2027 looking at Indeed. There’s no business like show business.