Paramount Warner Bros Merger Approved by Shareholders

The Paramount Warner Bros merger crossed one of its biggest hurdles on Thursday when Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) shareholders voted overwhelmingly to approve a $110 billion acquisition deal, a transaction that, if it clears regulatory review, will fundamentally redraw the map of the global entertainment industry. The vote, conducted virtually at a special shareholder meeting, delivered a decisive mandate: Paramount Skydance, run by David Ellison, will take over one of Hollywood’s most storied media empires.

What shareholders were far less enthusiastic about was the price of letting the current regime walk away. In a separate advisory vote held during the same session, investors handed CEO David Zaslav one of the most lopsided rejections in recent corporate memory with 82 percent of shares voting against his exit compensation package, pegged at a potential $886 million to $887 million.

The Deal in Numbers

The merger, which Paramount Skydance announced on February 27, 2026, assigns WBD an equity value of approximately $81 billion and an enterprise value of $110 billion. Paramount is offering shareholders $31 per share in cash for the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery, a figure that looks rather generous considering that WBD stock was trading around $8 per share just a year ago. For many investors, approving the deal was, as CNN put it, a straightforward call.

Under the terms of the acquisition, Paramount Skydance, which already controls CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, MTV, Nickelodeon, and BET, would absorb WBD’s assets including HBO and HBO Max, the Warner Bros. film and television studios, DC Comics intellectual property, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV, Discovery+, and the global Game of Thrones and Harry Potter franchises.

According to Deadline, Paramount has projected it will realise $6 billion in cost savings through the consolidation — a figure that industry analysts and labour unions have consistently translated as a precursor to mass layoffs across the combined entity.

 A Golden Parachute Too Far

If the shareholder vote on the merger was a foregone conclusion, the vote on David Zaslav’s exit package was a very different kind of statement.

According to Variety, investors owning 1.44 billion shares voted against the executive compensation packages for Zaslav and other named WBD officers, with just 307.7 million votes in favour. The proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), which notably supported the overall merger, had urged shareholders to reject the pay plans, calling the golden parachute for Zaslav “one of the highest golden parachute estimates ever observed.”

As reported by CNBC, Zaslav’s exit package consists of hundreds of millions in severance, stock awards, and, notably, a recently added excise tax gross-up valued at approximately $335 million. The total bounty, when factoring in stock awards and options that will vest on favourable terms, could exceed $800 million, with his employer also covering his tax bill.

There is a catch, however. The vote was non-binding, meaning the WBD board retains the legal right to proceed with the payments regardless of the shareholder rebuke. Zaslav himself called Thursday’s vote “a milestone toward completing this historic transaction,” making no direct comment on the pay outcome.

David Ellison Steps Closer to a New Hollywood Empire

For David Ellison, 42, the shareholder vote is the product of years of calculated ambition. The son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, he first spent two years acquiring Paramount Global for $8 billion before pivoting to pursue the far larger prize of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Speaking to employees following Thursday’s vote, Ellison described the combined company as a “next-generation media and entertainment company” that would better serve both audiences and creative talent. According to Business Insider, he told Paramount staff that the combined entity plans to release at least 30 films per year across both studios, a promise he had also made in person to exhibitors at CinemaCon.

In a statement released after the vote, Paramount said: “Shareholder approval marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, building on our successful equity and debt syndications and progress across regulatory approvals. We look forward to closing the transaction in the coming months.”

4,194 Signatures and Counting

The shareholder vote may have passed, but the broader battle over the Paramount Warner Bros merger is far from settled, and not everyone in Hollywood is celebrating.

An open letter opposing the deal, launched on April 13 via BlockTheMerger.com and published by the New York Times, had collected 4,194 signatures as of Thursday morning, according to Variety. The list includes more than 75 Oscar winners and nominees, with prominent names such as Robert De Niro, Sofia Coppola, Holly Hunter, and Mark Ruffalo among those who have added their voices.

The letter warns that the merger would “grievously compromise” the independence and diversity of the entertainment industry, shrink the number of major U.S. film studios from six to four, reduce competition at a critical moment, and lead to job losses across the creative workforce. The coalition behind the campaign, which includes the Writers Guild of America and other industry advocacy groups, staged a rally outside WBD’s Manhattan headquarters at 9 a.m. on the morning of the vote, and coordinated a protest in Washington, D.C., outside a private dinner that Ellison was hosting in honour of President Donald Trump and CBS News White House correspondents.

Democratic senators Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren have also spoken out against the deal on antitrust grounds, while California Attorney General Rob Bonta has an open investigation underway. “These two Hollywood titans have not cleared regulatory scrutiny,” Bonta said in February, pledging to conduct a rigorous review.

The Writers Guild’s position cuts to the heart of the creative community’s anxiety: a single company controlling HBO, DC, Warner Bros. Pictures, CNN, Paramount Pictures, CBS, and Nickelodeon is not just a business story — it is a question about who controls the stories an entire culture gets to tell.

The Regulatory Gauntlet Ahead

Shareholder approval is a milestone, but the deal remains incomplete. According to NBC News and NPR, the merger still requires regulatory clearance from the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Communications Commission, and EU and UK regulators. The DOJ’s antitrust division has already stated that Paramount Skydance will receive no preferential fast-track treatment due to political considerations. “The idea that somehow enforcement has been politicised is ludicrous,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Omeed Assefi told Reuters.

Pending those approvals, which Paramount has said it expects to receive in time to close the transaction in the third quarter of 2026, the combined entity will sit atop an entertainment empire that spans film, television, cable, streaming, news, and gaming. Mortal Kombat, Batman, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Star Trek, South Park, SpongeBob SquarePants, all of it will, if the deal closes, be controlled by one company.

For audiences, the implications remain genuinely uncertain. Two streaming services, Paramount+ and HBO Max, will need to be reconciled. Two competing slates of theatrical releases will be consolidated. Thousands of jobs across both organisations will be reviewed against a $6 billion cost-saving target that does not leave much room for sentimentality.