Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has filed to sell another $59.47 million in company stock, according to a Monday SEC filing, continuing a personal selloff that began even as a coalition of state attorneys general moves to block the studio’s $111 billion sale to Paramount Skydance. The new filing covers 2.18 million shares and follows a separate $114 million sale Zaslav made in March, bringing his recent cashouts north of $170 million.
The timing places Zaslav’s stock sales against a newly volatile legal backdrop. Twelve state attorneys general, led by California’s Rob Bonta, sued Monday in federal court to stop the merger on antitrust grounds, arguing it would combine two of Hollywood’s five major theatrical distributors and give the resulting company control over roughly a third of wide-release films and basic cable programming nationwide.
Bonta called the deal a threat to “movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and, ultimately, audiences” and asked the court to block the transaction from closing while litigation proceeds, with a request for a temporary restraining order filed the same night.
Paramount rejected the states’ arguments and pledged to fight the case, with a spokesperson describing the lawsuit as resting on a “fundamentally flawed application of the antitrust laws.” The company has argued that combining with Warner Bros. would better position it to compete against streaming leaders like Netflix and warned that delaying the deal would further damage an entertainment workforce already strained by industry disruption. The Justice Department cleared the merger in June without requiring divestitures, a decision the states are now directly challenging.
Should the deal survive the legal fight, Zaslav’s stock sales would come on top of a golden parachute reportedly worth more than $500 million, negotiated as part of his planned departure once the transaction closes. He also received a $165 million pay package for 2025, including $109 million in stock awards, as Warner Bros. Discovery pursued a sale last fall.
Zaslav’s tenure atop the studio has produced a mixed recent record. Warner Bros. film and television properties combined for a strong 2025, highlighted by HBO’s “The Pitt” winning top Emmy honors and a haul of 11 Oscars across “One Battle After Another” and “Sinners.”
But the studio’s 2026 theatrical slate has cooled considerably, with seven consecutive releases opening below $40 million, including high-profile underperformers “The Bride!” and “Supergirl.” Executives are counting on Alejandro Iñárritu’s “Digger” and December’s “Dune: Part Three” to close the year on stronger footing.
