David Zaslav, four and a half years after closing the debt-burdened deal that formed Warner Bros. Discovery, is bidding farewell to the company’s employees as it is about to get swallowed up by David Ellison’s Paramount — to create a media giant saddled with even more debt. Zaslav, president and CEO of Warner Bros.
Discovery, shared a video with employees Monday expressing gratitude for their hard work and creativity over the years. (The video, viewed by Variety, is available only on WBD’s internal portal.) Zaslav will exit with the megamerger of Paramount and WBD, scheduled to close Oct. 6, with the new Ellison-run company adopting the name Skydance Corp. In the video, Zaslav sits alone in a director’s chair in the Loft warehouse at Warner Bros. Studios’ Ranch facility in Burbank, California.
Discovery’s greatest hits, featuring clips from “The Pitt,” “The Lego Movie,” “Barbie,” “One Battle After Another,” “Dune,” “Hacks,” “Friends,” “The House of the Dragon,” “White Lotus,” “Abbott Elementary,” “Sinners” and (of course!) “Harry Potter,” as well as shots from CNN and WBD’s sports programming. According to a company source, Zaslav wanted to share his goodbye message as a video rather than a text memo in order to capture the visuals. Discovery, for the wonderful experiences creating content, telling stories and getting to know so many of you.” Zaslav has been among the most highly compensated CEOs in the media biz.
In 2025, his pay package totaled $165 million. That included a one-time grant of stock options valued at $109.6 million, which the company awarded to Zaslav on June 12, 2025, for his work on the company’s plan to split into two publicly traded entities (one housing WB’s HBO, HBO Max and studios business; the other largely composed of the linear TV network business along with Discovery+ and other assets). The WBD split into two companies did not proceed because of the deal to sell the company to Paramount Skydance.
When the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger closes, Zaslav is set to receive a “golden parachute” payout of at least $550 million. Over the years, Zaslav and his lieutenants made job cuts across the company as they looked to reduce costs and improve operating efficiency. For full-year 2022, Warner Bros.
Discovery had a pro-forma EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) loss of about $2.1 billion. In 2025, it generated EBITDA profit of $1.4 billion and has been on track for double-digit percentage growth in subscriber-related revenue growth in 2026. Here’s a transcript of Zaslav’s farewell message: Hello, everyone.
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