Key insights
- Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approved the merger with Paramount Skydance, pending regulatory approval. The deal's closing is expected by Q3, combining HBO Max and Paramount Plus. WBD CEO David Zaslav's potential $886 million payout faces shareholder scrutiny. The market impact is slightly negative due to regulatory uncertainty and concerns about executive compensation.
Market Domination Host Josh Lipton is joined by Yahoo Finance Senior Reporters Brooke DiPalma and Ines Ferré to take a closer look at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) after the media giant's shareholders approve its mega-merger with Paramount Skydance (PSKY).
WBD, its shareholders approving the Paramount takeover. Polymarket showing 71% betting on the acquisition closing by the end of 2026. Of course, but Paramount still has to secure regulatory approval, uh, but they're optimistic. What do you think?
Yeah, definitely optimistic here. The transition, a transaction rather, we're expected to close by the end of the third quarter, but of course, pending that regulatory approval, and that is the big question mark here. David Zaslav saying in the release today that this is another key milestone for the company towards that finish line, but it's just not there yet. But this would be major implications for Warner Brothers and Paramount Plus. I mean, this would essentially combine HBO Max with Paramount Plus. It would combine maybe The Sopranos and SpongeBob SquarePants. And so, what exactly this means in terms of maybe any consolidation we'd see on the platforms. There's still so many questions up in the air.
You know, it is, uh, Brooke mentioned Zaslav there. So WBD CEO David Zaslav. Here's a stat that jumps out, right? Uh, he could rake in here a total uh of as much as 886 million, which would be one of the highest golden parachutes ever observed, according to the Los Angeles Times. Now I was reading CNN, they say the compensation package proposal did not receive sufficient votes, did not pass. However, I guess that shareholder vote, it's sort of advisory. The the board could still move forward with that that payout.
Yeah, I mean, look, a a great deal for him, a great deal really for Warner Brothers in general.
Uh, my feeling from this from what I got from talking to analysts was that this was a must-have for Skydance. For Netflix, not so much. And if you take a look at Netflix stock, actually, it had jumped when the deal was no deal. And even though we saw Netflix going down after their earnings, uh it's still not it's still higher than what where it was when investors thought that perhaps there was a chance that Netflix was going to get this deal.
Yeah, and one analyst on the street saying that they see a a cleaner Netflix story because of the fact that Warner Brothers ended up going with Paramount. Keep in mind that the company's still going to get that $2.8 billion termination fee that now Paramount Skydance has to pay Netflix. And on top of all of that, Netflix still the leader here with Paramount Plus and HBO Max combined, it's about 200 million gross streaming subscribers. That is still less than what Netflix has. So Netflix seemingly still on top here.
King of streaming. All right.