Warner Bros Discovery mulls break up, reports say

Bengaluru — Warner Bros Discovery, the owner of CNN and HBO, has discussed a plan to split its digital streaming and studio businesses from its legacy TV networks as it looks to boost its flailing stock price, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

CEO David Zaslav was examining several options for the company, ranging from selling assets to separating its Warner Bros movie studio and Max streaming service into a new company, the FT reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The report said most of the group’s debt — about $39bn on March 31 — could remain with the pay-TV networks business if Warner Bros Discovery breaks up.

The company did not return a Reuters request for comment.

Consolidation in the media industry has picked up in 2024 as cable TV loses millions of customers to cord-cutting and the once-dominant firms seek the scale needed to compete with digital streaming giants such as Netflix.

Paramount Global agreed to merge with streaming-era upstart Skydance Media earlier in July, marking what some analysts have said is a change of guard from media moguls to tech billionaires as David Ellison took charge of the company.

Warner Bros Discovery’s shares have declined 65% since the 2022 merger that created the company, leaving it with a market value of $20.39bn.

Its stock was little changed in premarket trading, after jumping nearly 8% on Tuesday when BofA Global Research analysts said that options, including a break-up or sale of the company, would yield more shareholder value than a status quo.

This could be a negative for Warner’s debt, but would unlock value from its “best in class” assets, the analysts had said.

The FT report said the company was yet to hire an investment bank to initiate any specific transaction. 

Reuters