English Entertainment
Discovery APAC appoints Nikhil Madhok; strengthens corporate team with other hiring
MUMBAI: Discovery has announced key appointments in its APAC central corporate leadership team. Former Life OK GM and business head Nikhil Madhok has joined the channel as the senior vice-president (SVP) head of products.
Madhok will spearhead the re-development of the company’s product suite and champion a strong maker culture in the organisation. He will formally join in January 2017, and will closely partner with the innovation team on future digital offerings.
Operating leadership remains with the company’s five market clusters announced earlier in year. The move adds innovative, world-class capabilities and resources to accelerate the company’s stated ambition to evolve from a traditional linear Pay-TV to a true convergent media and entertainment business across market clusters in Asia.
“We are laser focused on re-inventing our existing space and growing our business beyond linear across Asia. The new leadership team members bring with them strong entrepreneurial drive and a disruptive mindset. I am thrilled to welcome them on board as we step up our efforts to redefine our product and business portfolio in the region,” said Discovery Networks APAC president and MD Arthur Bastings.
Other executives who have joined are — Rebecca Kent as the vice-president (VP) business transformation. Kent will oversee change management, and lead business process and operational optimisation. She joined in September from Discovery’s global business operations team in London.
Darrell Chan joined as the vice-president (VP) regional counsel. He will manage the legal dossier, drive strong governance around Discovery’s growing portfolio of equity stakes in new businesses and coordinate external affairs. Chan will joined on 1 February 2017, from Expedia. He will partner with Dinkim Sailo, who manages Discovery’s external and government affairs brief.
Dinkim recently joined from SOS International.
Karun Arya will now be the director, head of corporate communications, and will represent the company’s voice as it implements its ambitious transformation and investment plans. He came in from Uber.
Discovery’s new executives joined the chief financial officer and SVP corporate operations Nilesh Zaveri, the SVP Innovation Winradit Kasidit Kolasastraseni, the VP corporate development Jonathan Mills, the VP strategy Karan Paul and the VP HR Jin Tan in the APAC HQ team.
English Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount deal
Investors wave through a $111 billion megamerger but deliver a stinging, if toothless, rebuke over half-a-billion-dollar goodbye packages
NEW YORK: The shareholders said yes to the deal. They said no to the cheque. At a virtual special meeting on Thursday that lasted barely ten minutes, Warner Bros. Discovery investors voted overwhelmingly to approve Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of the company — and then turned around and voted against the lavish exit pay packages lined up for chief executive David Zaslav and his fellow outgoing executives.
Not that it will make much difference. The compensation vote is purely advisory and non-binding. The Warner Bros. Discovery board can, and almost certainly will, pay out as planned.
But the symbolism stings. It is the second consecutive year that WBD shareholders have voted against the executive compensation packages, and this time they had good reason. Zaslav’s exit deal is, by any measure, extraordinary. Under the terms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he is set to receive $34.2 million in cash severance, $517.2 million in equity in the combined company, and $44,195 in continued health coverage — a total of at least $550 million. On top of that, Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to reimburse Zaslav up to $335 million for taxes assessed by the Internal Revenue Service on his accelerated stock vesting, though the company says that figure will decline depending on when the deal closes. As of March 11, Zaslav also held $115.85 million in vested WBD stock awards — and last month sold a further $114 million worth of WBD shares.
Shareholder advisory firm ISS recommended voting against the compensation measure, citing “problematic” tax reimbursements to Zaslav and the full vesting of his stock awards.
Zaslav will be bound by a two-year non-competition covenant and a two-year non-solicitation of customers and employees after the deal closes.
His lieutenants are not walking away empty-handed either. J.B. Perrette, chief executive and president of global streaming and games, is in line for $142 million, comprising $18.2 million in cash severance and $123.9 million in equity. Bruce Campbell, chief revenue and strategy officer, will receive an estimated $121.5 million, including $18.8 million in severance and $102.7 million in equity. Chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels is set for $120 million, made up of $6.6 million in cash severance and $113.1 million in equity. Gerhard Zeiler, president of international, will get $82.6 million, including $11.9 million in severance and $70.7 million in equity.
The deal itself, clinched in February after Netflix declined to raise its bid for Warner Bros., still needs regulatory clearance from the Justice Department and European authorities. Several state attorneys general are also weighing legal action to block it.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was unsparing. “The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger isn’t a done deal,” she said after the shareholder vote. “State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to stop this antitrust disaster. We need to keep up this fight.”
If it does go through, the combined entity would be a formidable beast, bringing together Paramount Skydance’s stable — CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon — with WBD’s portfolio of HBO, Max, Warner Bros. film and TV studios, DC, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and Discovery+. Paramount has said it expects $6 billion in cost savings from the merger, which is Wall Street shorthand for mass layoffs on a significant scale.
The ten-minute meeting was presided over by chairman Samuel Di Piazza Jr., with Zaslav, Campbell, Wiedenfels and chief communications officer Robert Gibbs in virtual attendance. Di Piazza was bullish. “We appreciate the support and confidence our stockholders have placed in us to unlock the full value of our world-class entertainment portfolio,” he said. “With Paramount, we look forward to creating an exceptional combined company that will expand consumer choice and benefit the global creative talent community.”
Zaslav echoed the sentiment. “Over the past four years, our teams have transformed Warner Bros. Discovery and returned the company to industry leadership,” he said. “Today’s stockholder approval is another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders.”
Paramount Skydance struck a similar note. “Shareholder approval marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery,” it said in a statement, adding that it looked forward to “closing the transaction in the coming months.”
The shareholders have spoken on the merger. On the pay, they were ignored before the vote was even counted.
