Attention now turns to regulatory authorities, with both Washington and London expected to investigate the merger’s impact on competition.
Published on 23 April 2026
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders have backed the company’s proposed $110bn merger with Paramount Skydance, but cast an advisory vote against executive compensation plans tied to the deal.
According to a preliminary vote count Thursday, an overwhelming majority of Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders voted in favor of selling the entire business to Paramount for $31 a share, the company said. Including debt, the deal is valued at about $111 billion.
Recommended Stories
4 item listend of list
Under the proposed pay package for executives, CEO David Zaslav could receive up to $887 million if the sale is completed.
Skydance-owned Paramount wants to buy Warner’s entire stake. That means valuable titles like HBO Max, Harry Potter, and even CNN could soon find themselves under the same roof as CBS, Top Gun, and the Paramount+ streaming service. The green signal from the company’s shareholders increases the chances of this becoming a reality.
Attention now turns to regulatory authorities, with both Washington and London expected to investigate the merger’s impact on competition.
The United States Department of Justice sent a subpoena in late March seeking information on how the merger would impact studio output, content rights, streaming competition, and movie theaters.
Paramount prevailed over Netflix in a months-long bidding war, sealing the Warner Bros. deal and establishing Chief Executive David Ellison as a powerful force in a rapidly shrinking entertainment landscape.
The merger has faced considerable opposition from actors, filmmakers, and theater groups, who have raised concerns about the loss of a major studio and its impact on the creative community, theater owners, and moviegoers.
“Shareholder approval marks another important milestone toward completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery,” a Paramount spokesperson said.
The deal is expected to be completed in the third quarter this year.
The merger would reduce the number of major U.S. film studios to four and lead to fewer jobs, creative opportunities and fewer choices for consumers, more than 4,000 film industry professionals and consumers said in an open letter, calling on California Attorney General Rob Bonta to consider taking legal action to stop it.
Ellison promised theater owners that Paramount and Warner Bros. would release at least 30 films a year if regulators approved the deal.
However, analysts expect Hollywood’s overall film output to decline, as theater audiences decline and major studios focus on fewer, bigger-budget films.
