Paramount’s proposed mega-merger has just gotten the stamp of approval from Warner Bros. Discovery’s shareholders in a special meeting this morning.

While final numbers aren’t out yet, investors voted “overwhelmingly” in favor of the Paramount merger, going by the preliminary vote count. What they did vote against was a massive reported US$886-million exit pay package for CEO David Zaslav (and smaller packages for other execs), though this is more of a symbolic statement, since the vote is non-binding.

Pending regulatory approval, the WBD-Paramount transaction is expected to close sometime in the third quarter of this year. 

It’s the latest step in a dramatic M&A saga. WBD first rejected Paramount’s offers and approved a sale of its studio assets to Netflix, before the jilted Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison increased his bid to US$31 per share for all of WBD—an offer that made Netflix drop out of the race in February. That cleared the way for Paramount to take over—and potentially become a giant in the kids entertainment industry, thanks to the combined IP library of the two studios.

Despite the vote, it’s still far from smooth sailing for Paramount, as Ellison’s vision for a combined Hollywood powerhouse has faced pushback from media groups, exhibitors, politicians, movie stars and filmmakers seeking to #BlockTheMerger. (There was even a rally against the deal this morning, led by Jane Fonda’s Committee for the First Amendment.) 

The critics say the deal will lead to an extreme level of industry consolidation under one roof, the potential elimination of jobs for cost savings, reduced competition and lesser entertainment output for the industry as a whole. Amid these antitrust concerns, Ellison made a surprise appearance at CinemaCon last week in an effort to ease the worries of theater owners, many of whom were concerned that a merger could lead to fewer movies to screen every year. 

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