{"id":427338,"date":"2025-12-05T21:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T21:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/427338\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T21:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T21:34:10","slug":"david-zaslav-lauds-netflix-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/427338\/","title":{"rendered":"David Zaslav Lauds Netflix Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWarner Bros. Discovery<\/a>\u2019s top four executives \u2013 President and CEO David Zaslav, CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, Chief Legal Officer Priya Aiyar and Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer Bruce Campbell talked up Netflix\u2019s $83B deal to buy the company<\/a> in its town hall.<\/p>\n

\n\tZaslav called it a \u201cbig day\u201d for WBD.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe group praised the 25,000 rank-and-file staff for their performance and acknowledged all of the things that you\u2019d expect them to acknowledge such as the power of its IP in the Zoom meeting.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe main question for most staff on the call was whether they\u2019d still have jobs once the merger closes. Zaslav remained hopeful, saying that the intention is for Netflix<\/a> to bring over \u201cmost\u201d people.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was the team\u2019s latest of the morning, having earlier held a meeting for 150 of its top leaders.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tThe big headlines to come out of the town hall appear to be Zaslav suggesting that HBO Max will remain, in some form, after the acquisition, although he was scant on detail, and the fact that Warner Bros. Television, which produces shows such as Apple\u2019s Ted Lasso, ABC\u2019s Abbott Elementary and CBS\u2019s Georgie & Mandy\u2019s First Marriage, will continue to produce for third-parties, otherwise known as rivals, amidst Netflix ownership.<\/p>\n

\n\tA hoodie-clad Aiyar also acknowledged the regulatory process<\/a>, suggesting that it will be a global one <\/a>that will take between 12-18 months. \u201cThe process is going to take some time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\tZaslav\u2019s comments were similar to the letter that he sent to staff.<\/a> He also complimenting the Netflix team on how easy they were to work with \u2013 helped by the fact that he\u2019s been spending more time with Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos. He called the streamer an \u201cexceptional\u201d company with a \u201csustainable\u201d future.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe former NBCUniversal man did accept that the process, which also involved Paramount and Comcast was more public that it would have liked.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe group also outlined some of the financial details of the deal including how the stock will work between Warner Bros. Discovery and Discovery Global<\/a>, which is being spun out in the third quarter of next year.<\/p>\n

\n\tWiedenfels, who will run Discovery Global,<\/a> said that it was an \u201cemotional\u201d day for all, acknowledged the sad part of the move but said that he had \u201cenormous pride\u201d in the company. He added that he\u2019d be \u201clying\u201d if he wasn\u2019t \u201cexcited\u201d, given that he will get the chance to run his own empire, after all.<\/p>\n

\n\tToday is only the start of the process, it seems, something that Zaslav acknowledged when he told employees to \u201cput your seatbelts on\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warner Bros. Discovery\u2019s top four executives \u2013 President and CEO David Zaslav, CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, Chief Legal Officer…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":427339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[198867,66548,171,4659,198868,67,132,68,27281],"class_list":{"0":"post-427338","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-david-zaslav-pay","9":"tag-discovery-global","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-netflix","12":"tag-netflix-wb","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-warner-bros-discovery"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115669111012297537","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}