English Entertainment
This Valentine’s Day, Zee English cluster celebrates love in all its hues with three special binges!
MUMBAI: To love is to live! Nothing compares to the warm and fuzzy feeling you experience when you share a moment with your loved one. Be it an infant with the mother, a dog with his master or even a friend from miles away – love truly comes in all shapes and sizes. This Valentine’s Day, Zee English Cluster celebrates the emotion that needs to language and the feeling that makes the world go round with a special line-up of blockbuster movies curated for the day! No matter who your Valentine is, Zee English cluster has got you covered as Zee Café, &flix and &PrivéHD are each set to present a day-long binge on February 14, 2020.
Ever wondered how a man can befriend a robot? What would you do if countless innocent lives were in the hands of a fellow passenger and you? Can two robots develop an unspoken connection? Rediscover a new meaning to love and witness the power of an unbreakable bond as &flix brings a collection of top-rated Hollywood hits with ‘The Things You Do For Love’. The day-long binge starting 9 AM, includes the biggest and most-acclaimed movies such as the IMDB 8.4-rated ‘Wall-E’, the IMDB 7.6-rated ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’, the IMDB 7-rated ‘Passengers’ and the sci-fi delight A-X-L among others.
Adding a dash of romance to the day is the exciting line-up of Valentine’s Day special movies on Zee Café. Hangout with your loved ones and spend the day reminiscing the memories that make you smile with a slew of the most exciting movies on the channel. From romance and comedy to drama and animated-adventure, the Valentine’s Day binge includes a happy mix of movies that are sure to set the tone for the day. The titles include Academy Award-winning movies such as ‘Ratatouille’ and ‘Slumdog Millionnaire’ along with celebrated rom-coms like ‘How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days’, ‘She Is Out Of My’ and ‘League Playing It Cool’, 8 AM onwards.
What’s more? &PrivéHD, the premium destination of nuanced cinema, is set to turn hearts to mush as it encourages viewers to feel the love, all day long with heart-warming movies as part of ‘Love All Day’ starting 9AM onwards. The line-up includes tales that explore the unconventional and unravel the other side of love, obsession and infatuation with titles such as ‘Juliet, Naked’, ‘The New Romantic’, ‘The Seagull’ among others.
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.
