Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders have voted to approve the merger with Paramount Skydance.
The vote marks an important step in the nearly $111 billion merger. Shareholders approved the deal that will pay them $31 per share for the company. The stock price is currently just over $27 per share. It has been as low as just over $8 per share in the past year.
“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,” a Paramount spokesperson said.
“We look forward to closing the transaction in the coming months and realizing the creation of a next-generation media and entertainment company that better serves both the creative community and consumers,” the statement concluded.
While shareholders voted “overwhelmingly” to approve the deal on Thursday morning, they did not approve the executive compensation package. That package would have given CEO David Zaslav $500 million. Zaslav has served as the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery since 2022. He previously served in the same capacity at Discovery when the group merged with Warner Media.
Despite the vote result, the Warner Bros. Discovery board can still give out the payments as planned, however.
Paramount Skydance says that while the company needs regulatory approval, it expects the merger to be completed in the third quarter of this year. That echoes similar sentiments from FCC chair Brendan Carr, who said last month that approval “should get through pretty quickly”.
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