It’s hard to think of a more disastrous business decision in the last few years than the cable channel company Discovery eating the movie studio Warner Bros. Its lord and master, David Zaslav, has made a mockery of the once mighty studio, and the massive debt Discovery was brought in to bring down hasn’t been reduced much.
So according to the Financial Times, WBD has a new plan. They’ll separate the studio part of the company from the cable part.
Uh, won’t that just set things back to the way they were before? What was even the point of all this beyond cancelling some really cool shows and movies? For anyone who knows the history of Warner Bros, though, it’s incredibly familiar. The company has a record of buyouts that go nowhere dating back to the 1960s. At various points they’ve been known as TimeWarner, AOL TimeWarner, and Warner Bros Seven Arts.
This time, though, things won’t be entirely back to normal. The scheme here is by splitting the company, only one side would be saddled with the $39 billion in debt the whole company shares now. Conveniently, it would go to the cable side; the side that didn’t create the debt to begin with and is less likely to be able to repay it. You might point out the cable business is going downhill anyway, but….whether you realize it or not, there are things you would miss if the Turner Channels go dark. The world needs Adult Swim.
According to the report, it’s either this, or WBD starts selling off assets. Hey, if that happens, maybe Olan Rogers can buy Final Space….




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