Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav just sold about $30 million worth of stock, or some 2.6 million shares, in connection with “year-end income tax and gift/estate planning purposes.”
He unloaded the shares starting Dec. 16 for an average price of $11.73, according to an SEC filing. Zaslav’s holdings post-sale are 3.45 million WBD shares, worth over $38 million. The WBD chief also holds over 20 million stock options, some exercisable, some not, according to the April proxy statement on outstanding equity awards at the end of 2023. So the sale doesn’t reflect a significant chunk of his holdings.
In any case, he will get more. Zaslav and other media CEOs usually receive some combination of stock or option grants or both as part of their annual compensation packages. They also frequently sell at year-end to cover taxes and estate planning. Zaslav’s stock sale is apparently his first since presiding over the merged Warner Bros. Discovery.
Last month, Disney CEO Bob Iger exercised options to sell 372,412 shares, or $42.7 million worth, ahead of a deadline. It was the maximum allowed under an option plan adopted earlier this year that was set to expire in December.
And Comcast chairman and chief executive Brian Roberts sold 469.5 million shares for $20.4 million, also for year-end planning purposes. They were not a significant part of his holdings.