Newsom’s jobs czar could net huge payout from Warner Bros, Paramount deal

A top economic advisor for Gov. Gavin Newsom could net a pretty penny from the controversial sale of Warner Bros. Discovery to Trump-friendly Paramount.

Dee Dee Myers, a former Warner Bros. exec who now heads the governor’s Office of Economic Development, could score as much as $280,000 from the acquisition of her former employer by David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance, according to state filings.

The proposed sale price of $31 per share could mean a windfall of roughly $28,000 to $280,000, based on approximations from Myers’ economic disclosure form filed last year.

The state jobs czar, who was a communications executive at Warner Bros. from 2014 to 2020, reported owning between $10,000 and $100,000 worth of shares in the entertainment giant in 2024 in a disclosure filed last year.

State officials are required to report the value of stock holdings at their peak value in a given year, so Myers’ Warner Bros. reported holdings are equivalent to approximately 900 to 9,000 shares in the company based on a peak price of $11 in 2024 — worth about $28,000 to $280,000 after the proposed sale.

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It’s unclear when exactly Myers acquired the shares, though it’s common for top executives at media firms to receive stock grants as part of compensation.

Myers’ office didn’t immediately respond to questions about the status of her Warner Bros. holdings.

The proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. by Paramount set off a wave of alarm among liberal Dems and Hollywood players, given CEO David Ellison’s ties with the Trump administration and the president’s statements about the deals, which were seen as applying political pressure.

“It’s horrifying that any president would put his finger on the scale for one company over another,” producer Bill Gerber, a former exec at Warner Bros, told Politico.  

A group of Democratic senators wrote a letter to Ellison this month demanding he preserve all records related to the proposed transaction over concerns about political meddling in the deal, which requires regulatory approval.

Netflix dropped its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery on Thursday, saying the deal was “no longer financially attractive” after Paramount’s $31 per share offer.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said on Feb. 20 his office was taking a “close look” at the proposed transactions on antitrust grounds.

“These two Hollywood titans have not cleared regulatory scrutiny — the California Department of Justice has an open investigation, and we intend to be vigorous in our review,” he wrote on X Thursday.