Warner Bros Discovery mulls break-up to boost stock price, says report

It says CEO Zaslav is examining options ranging from selling assets to separating movie studio and streaming service into a new company

By Reuters

Published: Thu 18 Jul 2024, 4:04 PM

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 in a bid to boost its flailing stock price, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

The media giant's shares jumped 6.5 per cent in premarket trading.

CEO David Zaslav is 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.

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

The company did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Consolidation in the media industry has picked up this year as cable TV loses millions of customers to cord-cutting and the once dominant companies 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 was a change of guard from media moguls to tech billionaires as David Ellison will take charge of the company.

Warner Bros Discovery's shares have declined 65 per cent since the 2022 merger that created the company, leaving it with a market value of $20.39 billion.

The stock jumped nearly eight per cent on Tuesday when BofA Global Research analysts said options including a break-up or sale of the company would yield more shareholder value than a status quo.

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

The company is yet to hire an investment bank to initiate any specific transaction, according to the FT report.