Shareholders just signed off on a deal that could redraw Hollywood's map—while delivering a sharp slap to its top executive. Investors in Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday overwhelmingly backed Paramount's proposed $110 billion takeover, a move that would unite the Warner Bros. and Paramount studios, merge the Max and Paramount+ streamers, and create the country's biggest owner of traditional TV networks, from CBS and CNN to Nickelodeon and HGTV. With the vote done, the combined company—led by Paramount CEO David Ellison—still must clear regulators, especially in Europe, notes the Hollywood Reporter.
The one item shareholders didn't embrace: the payday. In a nonbinding vote, they rejected a compensation plan that could hand WBD CEO David Zaslav as much as $886 million when the deal closes, an amount proxy adviser ISS labeled "one of the highest golden parachute estimates ever observed."
Ellison has pitched the merger as a way to stand up to tech and streaming giants like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple, with promises of at least 30 theatrical film releases a year and an independent HBO studio. Critics, including thousands of Hollywood signatories and Democrats in Washington, warn the tie-up would further shrink media competition and concentrate news power in CBS News and CNN. "What is at stake is clearly not just a corporate deal, but who controls news, who controls entertainment, who controls storytelling," Democratic Sen. Cory Booker said last week, per the AP. "It's about the concentration and consolidation of cultural power."
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