This paper is devoted to global asymptotic stability of cellular neural networks with impulses and multi‐proportional delays. First, by means of the transformation vi(t) = ui(et), the impulsive cellular neural networks with proportional delays are transformed into impulsive cellular neural networks with the variable coefficients and constant delays. Second, we prove the global exponential stability of the latter by nonlinear measure, and that the exponential stability of the latter implies the asymptotic stability of the former. We furthermore provide a sufficient condition to the existence, uniqueness, and the global asymptotic stability of the equilibrium point of the former. Our results are generalizations of some existing ones. Finally, an example and its simulation are presented to illustrate effectiveness of our method. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.