Boss of Warner Bros Discovery. He started running Discovery, a constellation of TV channels, in 2006. Bryan Cranston, the "Breaking Bad" star, has described him as "so boring".
Mr Zaslav orchestrated the tie-up between Warner Bros and Discovery in 2022. The grand promises made at the time went largely unfulfilled. The combined company's streaming service (renamed from HBO Max to Max and back to HBO Max) remained dwarfed by Netflix. Warner had just two profitable quarters since the deal closed, leaving its debt-laden balance-sheet precarious. Shareholders rejected his $52m pay package in a "say on pay" vote.
Paramount Skydance grasped Warner Bros Discovery in early 2026 after months of wrangling, offering $31 per share—more than three times their value a year earlier.
If David Ellison, Paramount's boss, fires Mr Zaslav after the deal closes, he will receive $34m in severance. Whatever happens, even if he stays on, he will collect more than $500m from stock awards and options vesting on generous terms. His tax bill will also be settled by his employer, bringing the total bounty above $800m—perhaps the largest golden parachute in corporate history. Glass Lewis, a proxy adviser, said the tax arrangements should be a cause of "severe concern"; ISS, its rival, called them "problematic".
Mr Zaslav is not the first Warner boss to become fantastically wealthy: Steve Ross earned almost $200m when Time bought the studio in 1990; Jeff Bewkes left with a $70m golden parachute when AT&T bought Time Warner in 2018.
<doogie> Thinking is dangerous. It leads to ideas.