Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Now that the debt-driven CEO David Zaslav has found his buyer for Warner Bros. in Netflix - and drawn a $108.4 billion hostile takeover bid from Paramount, too - history can judge him. Sure, he may stick around, hosting whoever still might wish to see him at Woodland, the storied Beverly Hills spread he purchased from the estate of the late Paramount chief Bob Evans. But his purpose in town is likely nearing completion, having cost cut his way to this grand sale, unfortunately for Hollywood shrinking its competitive field while fortunately for him further fattening his massive net worth. The Netflix deal is expected to deliver him another $660 million, making him a billionaire. Related Stories Business "I Think It's Imperative That CNN Be Sold": Trump Plays Warner Bros. Kingmaker Business David Ellison Pitches WBD Shareholders Directly on Why Paramount Is a Better Buyer Than Netflix Zaslav, the longtime Discovery Communications CEO who first made his name developing CNBC and MSNBC, will likely go down as one of Hollywood's most legendary dealmakers: studied at Wharton and revered in Sun Valley. Particularly after auctioning his asset skyward in spectacular fashion. In the run-up to the sale, Warner Bros. Discovery had been trading beneath $10. Cut to Paramount's all-cash tender offer at $30 per share - which is likely to rise in the coming weeks. Since closing his Discovery-WarnerMedia deal in 2022, he's prioritized reducing the billions of debt he took on to create the combined entity. This has meant enforced austerity, including rounds of significant layoffs and cash-flow-first decisions - library monetization, sacrificing films to write-offs - which have eroded morale as well as trust both inside and outside his company. He's also spent much time overseeing the complex integration of two strikingly different corporate cultures and fiddling with their high-profile brands (HBO most of all), efforts which will be undone if the partial-purchase Netflix deal goes through. However, inside the film industry itself consensus remains that this career cable TV executive is a villain for the ages. (In May 2023 he managed to go viral twice, first for being heckled during the writers' strike while giving a college commencement speech, then days later for twinning in linen blazers with his Cannes party co-host and apparent swag coach Graydon Carter, who consulted for him on a redesign of the Warner Bros. commissary.) Despite a professed love of film and a willingness to occasionally bankroll his idols (like the $45 million spent on that De Niro flop The Alto Knights), the town largely believes Zaslav is an unprincipled steward of a load-bearing institution. A man who had to be publicly shamed by the likes of Spielberg and Scorsese into backpedaling from plans to destroy one of Hollywood's pillars, Turner Classic Movies. The only question is where he ranks among moguls whose decisions have left lasting damage to the broader business. Seated: Adolph Zukor, standing from left: Paramount President Frank Yablans, Gulf + Western CEO Charlie Bluhdorn, Robert Evans, Paramount Pictures 60th anniversary, 1972 This pantheon stretches from Paramount founder Adolph Zukor, whose monopolistic aggression provoked the federal government into industrywide antitrust action, to Giancarlo Parretti, whose fraudulent financing of MGM led to the studio's collapse. The more recent Paramount owner Sumner Redstone's leadership did much to hollow out mid-budget theatrical filmmaking, and Rupert Murdoch's choice in 2017 to sell Fox to Disney helped normalize the consolidation of the majors. Perhaps Zaslav's closest analogues in recent Hollywood history are financier Kirk Kerkorian, who repeatedly asset-stripped MGM, treating the studio as a real estate holding company, along with previous Warner Bros. owner John Stankey, who tried to use it to juice AT&T subs. As for Zaslav, his management record is more nuanced. His handpicked Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chairs Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca released a series of commercial and critical successes, including this year's cultural touchstones Sinners and One Battle After Another, under his reign. Kirk Kerkorian owned MGM - three times! AP Images Among the recent crop of content kings, Zaslav's a secondary player in the most significant shift for theatrical: the death of windowing. His predecessor Jason Kilar's infamous "Project Popcorn" initiative, which sent all 2021 Warner Bros. films to HBO Max day-and-date - without consulting talent or agencies - was a blow to theatre owners they've never recovered from. Bob Iger's own window-compression tactics to build out Disney+ during the pandemic elevated stre