Latest news with #WarnerBros.Discovery
New York Post
7 hours ago
- Business
- New York Post
Two CNN execs bolt struggling network as anxiety soars over cost-cutting after spinoff
Two senior CNN executives are reportedly bolting the ratings-challenged network as unease grows over the expected cost-cutting from the looming corporate spinoff. Laura Bernardini, vice president of domestic news, and Jacque Smith, vice president for digital video, are both leaving CNN, according to Oliver Darcy's Status newsletter. Bernardini has spent 28 years at CNN, while Smith has been at the netwoek for 17 years. Advertisement 5 Laura Bernardini, vice president of news for CNN, is reportedly leaving the network. CNN 5 Jacque Smith, vice president for CNN digital video production, is also said to be on the way out. CNN The Post has sought comment from CNN. Their reported departures come amid rising anxiety in the newsroom, with many staffers bracing for yet another wave of upheaval as CNN is carved out of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery and bundled with other legacy cable networks. Advertisement WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels — who has a reputation as a ruthless cost-cutter — will take over the new company, called Global Networks. CNN's star anchor Anderson Cooper, whose $18 million-a-year salary was reported for the first time last week, has hired a new super agent — leading to speculation he could also be on the way out. Wiedenfels, meanwhile, struck an optimistic tone about the network's future in a recent memo to staffers, calling himself a 'deep admirer of CNN' who consumes its content 'around the clock,' according to Status. Advertisement The email's subject line — 'Excitement for the Future' — did little to calm nerves, Darcy reported in his newsletter. 5 CNN staffers are reportedly bracing for steep cuts that are expected under incoming corporate boss Gunnar Wiedenfels. Warner Bros. Discovery 'Everyone is wary and tired and there is so much change that we don't understand what direction the company is going in,' one CNN staffer told Darcy. Another added: 'There are people who think CNN won't exist at some point.' Advertisement CNN boss Mark Thompson, who's tried to keep morale up, told staffers in a memo last week: 'We hold our destiny in our own hands… If we reinvent CNN to meet the challenge of the future… we'll succeed in all scenarios. If we don't, we'll suffer the same fate as any legacy company that fails to respond to a changing world.' 5 CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who earns a reported $18 million annually, recently hired a new agent — a sign he is looking toward a post-CNN future. Getty Images for CNN Global Networks — which will also include TBSm HGTV and TNT — will mark CNN's third parent company in seven years. Under Warner Media, former boss Jeff Zucker and Jason Kilar launched CNN+, only for the streaming service to be killed weeks after launch by WBD CEO David Zaslav folliwing its $43 billion merger in 2022. The network has lagged in the ratings race against rivals MSNBC and Fox News as Zaslav has pushed for left-leaning CNN to appeal to a more centrist audience. 5 Mark Thompson, chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide, reportedly sought to lift morale in the network newsroom. Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery WBD is pouring $100 million into a new CNN streaming product set to launch this fall — and reportedly re-hiring some of the same CNN+ executives they previously let go. 'Global Networks has a robust portfolio and is set-up for success. Across many regions and teams internally, there is excitement for the opportunities of Global Networks,' a source familiar with the situation told The Post. Advertisement WBD will retain HBO, Warner Bros. Pictures and Max as part of a new entity known as Streaming & Studios.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
RichCo vs. PoorCo: Not All Spinoffs Are Created Equal
The creation of Warner Bros. Discovery began with the corporate equivalent of sunshine and rainbows. In February 2021, David Zaslav, then the CEO of Discovery Inc., sent AT&T CEO John Stankey an amiable text. The message, which was adorned with both a golf and sunglasses emoji, sparked a series of talks (including secret meetings in a lower Manhattan townhouse) that led to the creation of WBD in 2022. Just three years later, the sunshine and golf has been replaced by cloudy skies, as the company prepares to split itself up. One current employee who works in what will become Gunnar Wiedenfels' global networks company expressed frustration at the news, lamenting that by the time this deal closes next year, the company will have spent an entire decade shuffling ownership from one entity to the next, from AT&T's deal for Time Warner, to the Discovery deal, to now — all while the stock price and cash flow have steadily declined as the cable iceberg melts, and with layoffs and cuts never ending but executive pay rising. More from The Hollywood Reporter HBO Max to Launch in 12 Countries in July as WBD Streamer Closes in on 100 Markets (Exclusive) It's Not You, It's WB: A Brief History of Warners' 21st Century Mergers and Breakups David Zaslav's SpinCo: Warner Bros. Discovery CEO Outlines "Bold Choice" to Split Company Superficially, at least, WBD's maneuver bears a striking resemblance to Comcast's decision to spin off its cable TV channels into Versant, but it is in the details where the two plans diverge. The biggest difference may be reflected in the very first question that Wall Street analysts asked Zaslav on a conference call on the morning of June 9: the debt. Wiedenfels' global networks company will hold a 'majority' of WBD's more than $30 billion in debt, utilizing its cash-flow-rich but slowly melting assets to service that debt. Versant, by contrast, is expected to have minimal debt, so that it can be an opportunistic acquirer (Versant CEO Mark Lazarus has told fellow media execs that he wants his company to be aggressive and expects to be a buyer rather than a seller). 'If you have a portfolio of what's called linear channels, one of the things you're thinking about is, 'Do they have successors in the streaming world?' And if so, how do I get from here to there?' says Integrated Media CEO Jon Miller, who adds that a high debt load could also make the company less attractive as an acquisition target. 'Not every linear channel is going to make it to the streaming world and thrive in the streaming world. So you're going to have to determine what you believe can thrive in the streaming world and make some choices and investments. If you have a lot of debt on top of that, your ability to invest is more limited. And so by necessity, you have to make even fewer choices in terms of what you invest in going forward.' At Zaslav's studios and HBO business, meanwhile, a solid balance sheet and creative portfolio are offset by losing the cash flow from cable TV. While NBCUniversal holds on to cash-flow-rich businesses like NBC and the Universal theme parks in its spinout, WBD is essentially divesting itself of its cash-flow machine in the name of creating a growth business. Comcast noted that Versant will have about $7 billion in cash flow, while what remains of NBCU will have nearly $40 billion in revenue. While WBD has not yet broken down its financials post-transaction, the linear networks comprise a majority of its revenue, giving it a very different economic profile. Zaslav's business, however, could make for a ripe acquisition target, as Wolfe Research's Peter Supino notes. As for Wiedenfels' side of things, 'Global Networks will not be positioned to die, in our view, but will still shrink materially,' Morningstar analyst Matthew Dolgin dryly wrote June 9. 'Some attractive assets, such as U.S. sports rights, the CNN and Discovery streaming properties, and digital assets like Bleacher Report, can mitigate the linear television networks' decline.' And while Versant has a tight bundle of seven cable TV channels and some digital brands like Fandango, the new WBD networks business will have a larger collection of channels, perhaps giving it more runway to operate but also giving it less ability to focus. And while NBCU spent years trimming down its roster of cable channels to only those it thought mattered, WBD has tried to prop up its channels in the service of survival, with a pivot at TruTV into a sports channel just the latest example. 'NBC, they've been really good and active the past couple of years skinny-ing down their program offerings so we don't have to re-up with networks that are of low value,' says Keith Bowen, president of news, programming and business services for the cable company Optimum. And Lazarus, at Versant, has made it a priority to get employees hyped up about being at what he frames as a well-capitalized startup rather than a holding company for a dying industry. In addition to acquiring companies, Lazarus has talked openly about acquiring new sports rights, about building out a programming team to develop and acquire entertainment, about staffing up in news at MSNBC and CNBC, and about a new temporary midtown Manhattan headquarters (located in the building that used to be the home of The New York Times) that he is dubbing 'summer camp.' While the messaging may change, WBD's initial public pitch remained focused on efficiency, rather than opportunity. But there is opportunity in that efficiency, as Bank of America analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich wrote shortly after the split was announced. 'With Streaming & Studios separated as a standalone public company unburdened by the substantial debt burden, we expect significant investor interest (both public and private) in these highly valuable assets,' she wrote. 'Similarly, as a standalone entity, Global Networks has optionality including asset sales or the potential to become a 'roll up' for other similar assets, likely at attractive valuations and subsequently extract several cost synergies (corporate, advertising sales, etc.) to extend the runway of FCF these assets would yield to service debt over the next several years.' One company that will excite investors, and another that will extract cost synergies to service debt, with any deal a ways away. 'While we view the split of Networks and Streaming & Studios as just the first step to unlock value, a second step may require patience,' Supino writes. The two SpinCos also tell a tale about the future. The first media mogul to broach the idea of spinning off their linear channels was Disney CEO Bob Iger, shortly after rejoining the company in 2022. Disney ultimately opted not to do so, but one wonders whether the company reconsiders in light of what rivals are pursuing. Similar questions are sure to arise as Paramount Global sits in limbo waiting for the Skydance deal to close. The past 30 years of the entertainment business were funded by cable TV cash, but it seems that era is finally coming to an end. The tastemakers gave way to the number crunchers, and now the number crunchers are sending the TV channels off to the vultures. Or, as mogul and dealmaker Barry Diller told THR in a May interview: 'We've gone from a town to a spreadsheet.' The propagators of those spreadsheets are running the show, and have decided that ripping up the businesses they helped forge is the pathway to success. This story appeared in the June 11 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe. Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
AEW CEO Tony Khan: The breakup of Warner Bros. Discovery won't affect our business
The looming breakup of struggling TV player Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) won't bodyslam All Elite Wrestling's (AEW) business, says CEO Tony Khan. "We have great relationships with everybody at the top, both on global networks and streaming and studios," Khan told Yahoo Finance at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on Tuesday (watch above). "Mr. Zaslav [CEO David Zaslav] himself put our deal together. Gunnar [CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels], who will be running global networks, also was very involved in our deal." Warner Bros. Discovery said this month it will split up amid the shift to streaming that's financially hammering its legacy TV assets. The company joins rival Comcast (CMCSA) in separating TV operations from streaming assets. Last October, AEW and Warner Bros. Discovery signed a multiyear media rights deal for a reported $185 million annually. The wrestling league's two weekly shows, 'Dynamite' and 'Collision,' air on Warner Bros. Discovery's TBS and TNT networks. As part of the new deal, AEW's programming began streaming on Max for US subscribers in January. AEW was launched in 2019 by Tony Khan, a longtime wrestling fan, and his father, Shad Khan. The promotion represented the first credible rival to the WWE since WCW folded in 2001. Shad and Tony Khan are co-owners of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars and Premier League soccer team Fulham FC. AEW debuted with an impressive roster of talent, led at the time by former WWE star Cody Rhodes. While Rhodes has since returned to the WWE, the league has maintained a roster of top talent, including former WWE stars Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson. Besides the big media breakups, the operating landscape for AEW is ever-shifting. In September 2023, Endeavor completed a $21 billion merger between WWE and UFC, forming TKO Group (TKO). Netflix (NFLX) began exclusively streaming WWE's flagship Raw show in January as part of a $5 billion, 10-year rights deal. Speculation has since surfaced that TKO Group may look to unload WWE. Meanwhile, the competition for eyeballs has never been fiercer as Gen Z spends outsized time on platforms such as YouTube and Spotify. "I think they [linear TV networks] still have a strong life. I just don't know how long it is," former BET CEO Debra Lee told Yahoo Finance at Cannes Lions about legacy media. Lee is currently a board member at Warner Bros. Discovery. "The viewing audience is still there," Lee added. "You know, you look at channels like BET or TNT or Discovery, so the audiences are still there. Not everybody wants to be on streaming." Read more from Yahoo Finance's coverage of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity Time CEO on embracing AI: It's better to have a seat at the table X CEO Linda Yaccarino rejects claims of advertiser pressure, touts X Money, other progress under Musk Marriott CEO on summer travel demand: We haven't seen any softness Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor and a member of Yahoo Finance's editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
AEW CEO Tony Khan: The breakup of Warner Bros. Discovery won't affect our business
The looming breakup of struggling TV player Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) won't bodyslam All Elite Wrestling's (AEW) business, says CEO Tony Khan. "We have great relationships with everybody at the top, both on global networks and streaming and studios," Khan told Yahoo Finance at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on Tuesday (watch above). "Mr. Zaslav [CEO David Zaslav] himself put our deal together. Gunnar [CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels], who will be running global networks, also was very involved in our deal." Warner Bros. Discovery said this month it will split up amid the shift to streaming that's financially hammering its legacy TV assets. The company joins rival Comcast (CMCSA) in separating TV operations from streaming assets. Last October, AEW and Warner Bros. Discovery signed a multiyear media rights deal for a reported $185 million annually. The wrestling league's two weekly shows, 'Dynamite' and 'Collision,' air on Warner Bros. Discovery's TBS and TNT networks. As part of the new deal, AEW's programming began streaming on Max for US subscribers in January. AEW was launched in 2019 by Tony Khan, a longtime wrestling fan, and his father, Shad Khan. The promotion represented the first credible rival to the WWE since WCW folded in 2001. Shad and Tony Khan are co-owners of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars and Premier League soccer team Fulham FC. AEW debuted with an impressive roster of talent, led at the time by former WWE star Cody Rhodes. While Rhodes has since returned to the WWE, the league has maintained a roster of top talent, including former WWE stars Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson. Besides the big media breakups, the operating landscape for AEW is ever-shifting. In September 2023, Endeavor completed a $21 billion merger between WWE and UFC, forming TKO Group (TKO). Netflix (NFLX) began exclusively streaming WWE's flagship Raw show in January as part of a $5 billion, 10-year rights deal. Speculation has since surfaced that TKO Group may look to unload WWE. Meanwhile, the competition for eyeballs has never been fiercer as Gen Z spends outsized time on platforms such as YouTube and Spotify. "I think they [linear TV networks] still have a strong life. I just don't know how long it is," former BET CEO Debra Lee told Yahoo Finance at Cannes Lions about legacy media. Lee is currently a board member at Warner Bros. Discovery. "The viewing audience is still there," Lee added. "You know, you look at channels like BET or TNT or Discovery, so the audiences are still there. Not everybody wants to be on streaming." Read more from Yahoo Finance's coverage of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity Time CEO on embracing AI: It's better to have a seat at the table X CEO Linda Yaccarino rejects claims of advertiser pressure, touts X Money, other progress under Musk Marriott CEO on summer travel demand: We haven't seen any softness Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor and a member of Yahoo Finance's editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Warner Bros. Discovery Restructures Games Division to Focus on ‘Harry Potter,' ‘Game of Thrones,' DC and ‘Mortal Kombat' IP
Warner Bros. Discovery is restructuring its games division to focus on four of its core IP's: Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, DC and Mortal Kombat. As part of the move, Warner Bros. Games Montréal studio head Yves Lachance, NetherRealm studio head Shaun Himmerick and Warner Bros. Games New York studio chief Steven Flenory have all been promoted to senior vice presidents. Lachance will oversee the development teams working on the 'Harry Potter' and 'Game of Thrones' games, Himmerick will oversee the teams working on 'Mortal Kombat' and DC games and Flenory will oversee the teams behind game and publishing technology, customer service, quality assurance and user research. The trio will report to WBD global streaming & games CEO JB Perrette. 'Our company is home to some of the biggest franchises in the world, and we are optimizing our team structure to develop long-term franchise roadmaps to delight players and fans of 'Harry Potter,' 'Game of Thrones,' 'Mortal Kombat' and DC games,' Perrette said in a statement. 'We are very fortunate to have a strong stable of development and technology talent, and Yves, Shaun and Steven are respected leaders with excellent track records in their areas of expertise. I'm looking forward to working closely with them and the team as we work to make the best games possible for our key franchises.' The new leadership structure follows the departure of former games chief David Haddad in January. The restructuring comes after games revenue dropped 48% during WBD's first quarter of 2025 due to no new releases during the period, compared to the release of 'Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League' in the prior year period, as well as higher carryover from 'Hogwarts Legacy' and 'Mortal Kombat 1' in the prior year. It also comes as the David Zaslav-led media giant is gearing up for a split of its global linear networks and studios and streaming businesses in mid-2026. In addition to Warner Bros. Games, the studios and streaming business will house Warner Bros. Television Group, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, DC Studios, HBO and HBO Max, Warner Bros. Tours, Retail and Experiences, as well as studio production facilities in Burbank and Leavesden. Executives have said that the streaming business is on track to generate at least $1.3 billion in profit by the end of 2025 and reach at least 150 million streaming subscribers by the end of 2026, which it plans to achieve through a combination of expanding Max internationally, strategic distribution partnerships and driving higher penetration of its ad-supported tier. Meanwhile, the studios business is targeting at least $3 billion in annual profit, with a specific timeline for achieving that remaining unclear. Global Networks will include CNN, TNT Sports in the U.S., Discovery, top free-to-air channels across Europe, Discovery+ and Bleacher Report (B/R). It will retain a 20% stake in the studios and streaming business to help the company deleverage and is expected to take the majority of WBD's roughly $37 billion in gross debt. The post Warner Bros. Discovery Restructures Games Division to Focus on 'Harry Potter,' 'Game of Thrones,' DC and 'Mortal Kombat' IP appeared first on TheWrap.
