Breakups Are Hard, but It May Be Exactly What Warner Bros Needs to Save Its Stock
The unexpected plot twist is here — but for those following, it feels like another sequel no one asked for. Warner Bros Discovery is reportedly considering separating its profitable streaming and studio operations from its less lucrative cable network business. This move comes weeks after flailing competitor Paramount announced a deal to merge with Skydance Entertainment.
- The split could lead to the two businesses trading under separate names — a strategy that has been used in recent years by conglomerates like 3M, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson to help boost stock prices.
- Executing a spin-off would be challenging since “most of the company’s cash flow comes from the linear television business, while most of the cash is used by the streaming and studio business,” according to Barclays Capital’s Kannan Venkateshwar.
Split decision: Warner Bros Discovery has tried everything to improve its share price, which has dropped ~27% this year and is down ~65% since its 2022 merger with Discovery. Despite layoffs and debt reduction efforts, Bank of America’s Jessica Reif Ehrlich told Deadline that the “current composition as a consolidated public company is not working,” but she still sees their balance sheet as “perhaps the most underappreciated asset within the company’s portfolio.”
