David Zaslav Sells $9.5M in Warner Bros. Discovery Shares for Tax Purposes

CEO David Zaslav has sold some shares in the studio for tax purposes. The mogul sold around $9.5 million in the company’s stock for $11.40 per share, with the disposal done for tax purposes, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Zaslav’s move was part of required tax withholding, says a Warner Bros.

Discovery source. The studio head did a similar size sale of WBD shares on Jan. 10, 2023, again for tax purposes. The Jan. 8, 2024 transaction came ahead of shares in WBD closing down 60 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $10.97 on Wednesday. Zaslav’s sale of shares in the studio behind HBO, CNN and the Max streaming service also comes as WBD is in the spotlight amid after he and Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish held a meeting in December a possible merger between the two companies.

Stock sales or purchases by Zaslav also impact the studio head’s overall compensation package, which is heavily dependent on performance stock options based on how WBD generates cash and reduces its overall debt load. The value of Zaslav’s which saw the Discovery WarnerMedia merger close in April, hit $39.3 million, according to a company regulatory filing.

In 2021, then Discovery CEO Zaslav received a pay package worth $246.6 million that was tied to the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery. That was an enormous jump compared with $37.7 million in 2020 and $45.8 million in 2019 and was driven by a May 2021 employment agreement that is set to keep Zaslav at the company through the end of 2027, when his overall compensation will be dependent on shares in WBD rising higher from their current range.

WBD has seen its stock price continuing to trade well below highs in the early days of the streaming wars as the studio nears profitability in streaming, albeit at the hands of deep cost cutting. THR Newsletters Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day More from The Hollywood Reporter.