John Malone Giving Up Seat On Warner Bros. Discovery Board Of Directors, Shifting To Emeritus Role

Media billionaire John Malone is exiting his seat on Warner Bros. Discovery’s board of directors and will become chair emeritus.

The company said Friday in an SEC filing that Malone notified the board on Tuesday that he did not intend to stand for re-election at WBD’s next annual shareholder meeting.

The board will also increase to 14 members, the filing noted. WBD has been overhauling its board of late, in part due to efforts by an activist shareholder to effect changes at the company.

Malone helped engineer the 2022 merger of Discovery, in which he held a longtime stake, and WarnerMedia. He has been a mentor to WBD CEO David Zaslav. Unlike many of Malone’s shrewd moves over many decades in the media business, the WBD merger hasn’t resulted in strong returns for shareholders after three years. The company’s stock slipped below $9 a share this week and trades at roughly one-third its level at the time of the combination.

As chair emeritus, WBD said, Malone will attend board meetings “in an advisory capacity, but will not vote on board matters.”