Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav seems to be preparing for his departure from the company with the Paramount Skydance takeover pending. Zaslav is excepted to depart the company in a few months, so he is selling $59 million of his stock in the company ahead of the merger.

The CEO filed to sell $114 million worth of WBD stock in March, and is now planning to cash out even more after the WBD share price rose 1.9% on Wednesday to $27.09/share. Zaslav is expected to walk out of the Paramount takeover with a hefty exit package estimated at over half a billion dollars. If the deal goes through as planned, his net worth will exceed $1 billion.

The WBD and Paramount merger has been heavily scrutinized by the public since its inception in February of this year. WBD was originally satisfied with a deal where Netflix would purchase their studios and streaming assets in late 2025. However, Netflix back out after Paramount offered a more lucrative deal to buy out WBD in its entirety. The deal is still pending approval in several jurisdictions, but 24 have already approved the merger, including the United States Justice Department. Earlier this week, a coalition of 12 U.S. states sued to block the merger on antitrust grounds. Paramount plans to defend the takeover.