Two members of Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) board have resigned amid an investigation from the Department of Justice into whether their presence on the body violated antitrust law.
Steven Miron and Steven Newhouse, both independent company directors, resigned from WBD’s board of directors Monday, the company said, after the DOJ made them aware they were under investigation.
Miron and Newhouse informed WBD that they chose to resign rather than to contest the matter because of the changing dynamics of competition in the entertainment industry, without admitting any violation.
Miron is the chief executive of Charter Communications, and Newhouse is president of Advance, two of the largest media conglomerates in the country.
The DOJ had alleged the two executives’ presence on the board violated Section 8 of the Clayton Act, which prohibits the same person or company from serving simultaneously on the boards of competitors, subject to limited exceptions.
A statement from the department mentioned that both Charter and WBD provide video distribution services to customers, and representatives of the privately-held media company Advance Publications Inc. had designees on both Charter’s and WBD’s boards of directors.
Miron and Newhouse were appointed to the WBD board after the merger between Discovery Inc. and WarnerMedia in 2022, named by Discovery Inc. as two of its six designees to the WBD board, the company noted.
“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,” said David Zaslav, chief executive officer of Warner Bros. Discovery.
