WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar announced on Tuesday that he will leave the company.
WarnerMedia, which is the parent company of CNN, is expected to finalize its merger with Discovery next week. Discovery CEO David Zaslav will oversee the combined venture and Chris Licht has been selected to run CNN once the deal is finalized.
Fox News reports:
“With the pending transaction with Discovery nearing close, now is the right time to share with each of you that I will be departing this amazing company,” Kilar wrote in a memo.
“Leading this team has been the honor of my lifetime,” he wrote in the memo that was obtained by Fox News Digital.
Kilar is widely disliked inside CNN and largely viewed as the person who forced ex-CNN boss Jeff Zucker to resign earlier this year. Zucker, who was beloved by many CNN underlings who often referred to him simply as “JZ,” was thought to have a longstanding feud with Kilar, the head of CNN’s parent company.
Kilar initially claimed Zucker had to step down because he failed to disclose a consensual sexual relationship with a fellow CNN executive, but later admitted Zucker violated the network’s news standards and practices. Kilar never explained what exactly Zucker did to violate the rules.
Following Zucker’s resignation CNN staffers in the network’s Washington, D.C., bureau had a fiery confrontation with Kilar over the shocking departure.
