David Zaslav, the multimillionaire CEO of Discovery, will take the reins of AT&T-Discovery — and become a billionaire in the process.
Only in Hollywood could a deal that sees a new player created out of two existing groups be pictured as a big, bold, dramatic…
Forget the multibillion-dollar loss by one company, tens of billions of dollars in debt, some of the best known global brands (Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Disney) as the offscreen “baddies” to the plucky new contender, a string of looming job losses (including the CEO of one of the companies who wasn’t told about the sale and merger plans) and the winner is: the highest paid executive in US media who is set to earn a billion US dollars by the time a six-year contract to run the new company ends in 2027.
In every big deal, attention focuses on one person: the dealmaker, adviser, banker or CEO. In the case of the US$43 billion sale of Warner by AT&T and the merger with Discovery, it’s Discovery’s CEO David Zaslav.
Go deeper on the issues that matter.
Already a subscriber? Log in to keep reading.
Or, register your email address for a FREE 21-day trial.
