Film-deleting CEO David Zaslav will receive a $567m payout if Netflix’s acquisition of Netflix goes through. Happy Christmas, readers. In literature, cold-hearted rich people are terrorised by ghosts at Christmas. In our dystopian 21st century reality, they get massive pay cheques. At least, that’s the case with David Zaslav, the Warner Bros CEO who’s spent ... Warner Bros | CEO David Zaslav will receive over $550m if Netflix deal goes through
Film-deleting CEO David Zaslav will receive a $567m payout if Netflix’s acquisition of Netflix goes through. Happy Christmas, readers.
In literature, cold-hearted rich people are terrorised by ghosts at Christmas. In our dystopian 21st century reality, they get massive pay cheques.
At least, that’s the case with David Zaslav, the Warner Bros CEO who’s spent his tenure at the company summarily deleting movies in order to take advantage of tax write-downs. He and his associates at Warner have recently put the storied Hollywood studio up for sale, and while Paramount Skydance thundered in with a $108bn counter-offer, it seems that it’ll be Netflix will become the company’s new owner.
If and when that deal is officially signed off, Zaslav will receive an absolutely enormous pay-out. Back in the deal’s early days, when Comcast was still in the running, it was reported that the CEO might receive as much as $500m as part of the sale.
That’s an absurd sum, of course – far beyond anything most ordinary mortals could spend in a lifetime. But it’s since emerged that the previous figure was wrong: Zaslav will in fact receive a total of $567m.
That sum has emerged from regulatory filings, where the company’s transactions legally have to be made public. As published by the The Hollywood Reporter, Zaslav will receive a $30m payout – a “golden parachute” to help him along while he’s between jobs – as well as a further $537m in shareholder equity. Grand total: $567m.
Zaslav isn’t alone in this looming cash bonanza, either. Warner Bros CFO Gunnar Wiedenfals will receive a total of $142m; head of streaming JB Perette will get a shade over $167, and so on.
It gets better, at least for the C-suite crew: if Paramount keeps trying to buy Warner Bros, triggering a bidding war, then Zaslav and his colleagues’ payouts will also increase.
Merry Christmas, readers.
