Warner Bros. Discovery said that two of its directors, Steven Miron and Steven Newhouse, are stepping down from the board, effective March 29.
The resignations follow the Justice Department informing Miron and Newhouse that it was investigating whether their serving on the board violated the Clayton Antitrust Act, the company said. The two directors resigned rather than contest the antitrust questions.
Both executives were members of the Discovery board when Discovery merged with WarnerMedia to become Warner Bros. Discovery. Miron is CEO of Advance/Newhouse Partnership, Newhouse is co-president of Advance.
“From our investment in the Discovery Channel in the earliest days of cable, through Bob Miron’s service as Discovery’s Board Chair and Steve and my service on this board, and with the enormous efforts of John Malone and David Zaslav, we are proud to have played a role in the building of this great company and remain a large stockholder. We are disappointed to leave the Board, but wish to do the right thing for WBD,” said Steven Newhouse.
The Miron and Newhouse families are longtime investors in cable programming and operations. Steve Miron (inducted into the B+C Hall of Fame in 2022) was the CEO of Bright House Networks when that cable company was sold to Charter Communications in 2015 and he is a Charter board member.
The WBD board said it plans to reduce its number of directors to 11 following the resignations.
“On behalf of our Board and WBD’s leadership team, I want to thank Steve Miron and Steven Newhouse for their extraordinary service and longstanding commitment to Discovery and Warner Bros. Discovery,” WBD CEO David Zaslav said. “Both Steve and Steven have been a great source of wise counsel and tremendous industry insight over the years, and they played an integral role in getting this new company up and running and on a path to long-term growth. We are enormously grateful for their steadfast support and wish them the very best.”
