Mr. Kilar and a handful of other top executives were only brought into the loop on the Discovery deal in the past week or so, a person familiar with the matter said. Mr. Stankey declined to comment on when other top executives were told of the negotiations.

Asked about Mr. Kilar's future with the company, Mr. Stankey said it would be Mr. Zaslav's call on who stays and goes after the deal closes. Mr. Zaslav declined to comment on Mr. Kilar, and Mr. Kilar didn't respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Kilar's team also is pondering their future. Some division heads and staffers are optimistic about working again for a pure-play entertainment company, instead of part of a telecom giant, people inside Warner Bros. said.

Asked Monday whether telecom and media combinations made long-term sense, Mr. Stankey said he didn't know. "I won't conclude that there isn't possibly going to be that kind of reordering in the industry over time," he said. "But for right now...that's probably a mismatch at this juncture."

Write to Drew FitzGerald at andrew.fitzgerald@wsj.com, Joe Flint at joe.flint@wsj.com and Benjamin Mullin at Benjamin.Mullin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-17-21 2041ET