Warner Bros Discovery mulls break-up to boost stock price, FT reports
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% 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.
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% since the 2022 merger that created the company, leaving it with a market value of $20.39 billion.
The stock jumped nearly 8% on Tuesday when BofA Global Research analysts said options including a break-up or sale of the company would yield more shareholder
