Warner Bros Discovery shareholders have backed the company’s proposed $110 billion merger with Paramount Skydance, but cast an advisory vote against executive compensation plans tied to the deal.<\/p>\n
Under the pay packages proposed to executives, CEO David Zaslav could receive up to $887 million if the sale is completed. Proxy advisor ISS had said Zaslav’s potential payout was “extremely large”.<\/p>\n
“Management now faces a twofold challenge: securing (regulatory) approval for the deal and proving it can create long-term value without fuelling concerns around excessive pay,” PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore said.<\/p>\n
With shareholder approval secured, attention now turns to regulatory authorities, with both Washington and London expected to examine the merger’s impact on competition.<\/p>\n
The US Department of Justice sent subpoenas in late March seeking information on how the merger would affect studio output, content rights, streaming competition and movie theaters.<\/p>\n
“The real regulatory pressure sits overseas, where European authorities will focus on structural market impact,” said Forrester research director Mike Proulx.<\/p>\n
Paramount won a months-long bidding war with Netflix for Warner Bros, a victory that cements CEO David Ellison as a powerful force in the rapidly contracting entertainment landscape.<\/p>\n
The merger has also drawn opposition from actors, filmmakers and cinema groups, who argue it would eliminate a major studio and reduce creative opportunities.<\/p>\n
More than 4,000 film industry professionals and consumers said in an open letter that the deal would lead to fewer jobs and less choice for audiences.<\/p>\n
“Shareholder approval marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery,” a Paramount spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
The deal is expected to close in the third quarter this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warner Bros Discovery shareholders have backed the company’s proposed $110 billion merger with Paramount Skydance, but cast an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-414350","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}