Latest news with #WarnerBrosDiscovery
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
David Zaslav will take a pay cut after Warner Bros. Discovery splits up—with a big hit to his bonus
CEO David Zaslav's pay package will be impacted by the upcoming company split. While he will earn less, he has been given options that could let him pocket $150 million if the company hits targets. Zaslav earned $51.9 million last year. The looming split of Warner Bros. Discovery is going to impact CEO David Zaslav's paycheck, in both negative and potentially positive ways. After collecting a pay package of $51.9 million last year, making him one of the highest-paid CEOs in the country, Zaslav is facing cuts in the coming year, reports the Wall Street Journal. Under a new contract offered by the board, he will retain his $3 million annual salary, but his target bonus would fall from $22 million last year to $6 million moving forward (with a cap of $12 million). In addition, he would receive a target of $15.5 million in equity next year, then $7.5 million in following years. Beyond that, though, Zaslav was given options for 21 million shares last week. He's also due to get at least 3 million more shares in January. He will become 40% vested in those over five years, with additional vesting benchmarks happening if the company's stock price increases in three levels over that time by 20% to 65%. Should all of the targets be hit, those options could let him pocket $150 million. The new pay package will kick in only if the split occurs by the end of next year. Zaslav's salary has historically been controversial. Earlier this month, shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery voted down his compensation package, as well as that of other top executives, in a 'Say on Pay' vote. That vote, however, was symbolic and nonbinding, and the board gave Zaslav his $51.9 million. The media and entertainment giant announced on June 9 that it will separate into two publicly traded companies through a tax-free transaction. Zaslav will lead the streaming and studios company, which will oversee movie properties and the HBO Max streaming service. Gunnar Wiedenfels, who has been CFO since 2022, will become CEO of global networks, which will include cable channel businesses CNN, TNT, TBS, Discovery, and more. Zaslav has been CEO of WBD since 2022. His pay rate is higher than that of several competitors, including Disney's Bob Iger ($41.4 million), Comcast's Brian Roberts ($33.9 million), and SiriusXM's Jennifer Witz ($32.1 million). This story was originally featured on 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
13 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
How Is Warner Bros. Discovery's Stock Performance Compared to Other Entertainment Stocks?
Born from a high-stakes 2022 merger, New York-based Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) fused Hollywood grandeur with lifestyle grit, melding CNN, HBO, and TNT with TLC, HGTV, and Discovery Channel. Now a global content titan broadcasting in 50 languages across more than 220 nations, WBD curates culture at scale. Commanding a $26 billion market cap, the company straddles prestige and populism, leveraging deep IP arsenals and cable dominance to navigate streaming wars and media upheaval. Large caps are the market's heavyweights, firms valued at $10 billion or more, built on global reach, strong assets, and brand power. Warner Bros. Discovery fits the mold perfectly. As legacy TV meets digital reinvention, WBD's scale, strategy, and storytelling muscle drive its rise. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Says 'We Are Heading Towards a World Where AI Will Just Have Unbelievable Context on Your Life' How a Stablecoin Could Absolutely Transform This 'Strong Buy' Dividend King Nvidia's Bringing Sovereign AI to Germany. Should You Buy NVDA Stock Here? Markets move fast. Keep up by reading our FREE midday Barchart Brief newsletter for exclusive charts, analysis, and headlines. WBD may wear a heavyweight belt in media, but its stock has taken some punches, down 16.8% from its 52-week high of $12.70 set last December. Still, it's not entirely on the ropes, edging up 1.7% over the past three months. But that's a far cry from the 11.6% rally posted by the Invesco Dynamic Leisure and Entertainment ETF (PEJ) over the same time frame. However, over the longer term, WBD stock surged 51.2% over the past 52 weeks, outperforming PEJ's 21.1% climb over the past year. WBD shook off its bearish blues with a technical turnaround, after months of choppy drift, the stock pierced above both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages in mid-May. That crossover flipped the script, signaling renewed momentum as bulls regained control and bearish undertones gave way to a cautious but growing optimism on the charts. Warner Bros. Discovery has been living a high-wire act. Despite its heavyweight status, the media giant's latest quarter read like a cautionary tale. Its fiscal Q1 earnings report, released on May 8, was mixed, revealing shrinking revenue and consistent losses. Meanwhile, ad revenue fell, content sales plunged by double digits, and even its streaming and studio arm wasn't spared, dropping to $4.4 billion. Cable's collapse hit hard, but streaming did not save the day either. With rumors swirling of a potential breakup, the pressure to cut through its $38 billion debt pile is more real than ever. Sure, it shaved off $2.2 billion in Q1, but cash reserves also slipped - from $5.3 billion to $3.9 billion - raising eyebrows. Yet, the plot thickened when restructuring efforts and whispers of a leaner, more focused WBD sparked a recent stock rally. Investors caught a whiff of a turnaround, finally seeing beyond the crumbling legacy business to a more agile future. It's still a steep climb, but if WBD plays its cards right - cut costs, push smart content, and court global audiences - it might just turn this script from a tragedy to a long-overdue redemption arc. In the media arena, WBD's been trailing its rival Walt Disney Company (DIS) lately - DIS stock soared 18.6% over the past three months, leaving WBD in the dust. But zoom out, and the tables turn. Over the past year, WBD's double-digit rally actually outpaced Disney's 16.1% climb. Wall Street has not written off WBD just yet. Despite the turbulence, the stock has a consensus 'Moderate Buy' rating from 26 analysts covering WBD. Meanwhile, the average price target sits at $12.62, hinting at a potential 19.4% upside from here. On the date of publication, Sristi Jayaswal did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Gizmodo
20 hours ago
- Business
- Gizmodo
David Zaslav Is Getting a Pay Cut
David Zaslav, the unfortunate CEO of the company formerly known as Warner Bros. Discovery (the company, which was once two separate companies but became one, is splitting up again), has often been accused of being bad at his job and, now, it would appear that the people who pay his salary may agree. A new report from Deadline finds that Zaslav is scheduled to receive a sizable pay cut this year. Citing a recent SEC filing, Deadline notes that a new business agreement will 'significantly reduce his target annual compensation, including lowering his annual cash compensation opportunity and reorienting the total pay mix toward long-term incentives.' This shift will 'foster a stronger alignment with stockholders and incentivize sustained, long-term value creation,' the document says. In 2023, Zaslav's compensation package was boosted substantially from what it had been in 2022. Zaslav received a package worth approximately $50 million. That represented a 26.5 percent increase over the preceding year in which he reportedly made a total of $39.2 million. Those payouts paled in comparison to 2021, when Zaslav technically made $246 million from stock options appended to a new, multi-year employment contract with the company. Now, Zaslav will have his wages slashed and capped, so as to better 'align' them with a 'pay-for-performance' model championed by shareholders, a statement from WBD Board Chair Samuel A. Di Piazza Jr. told Deadline. The outlet expounds on Zaslav's new pay thusly: After the separation, Zaslav will have a contract through December 31, 2030, and a base salary of $3 million a year. His target annual cash bonus opportunity will be reduced to $6 million, with the actual payout based on the achievement of performance goals established by Streaming & Studios' compensation committee. The annual bonus payout is subject to a cap of 200% of the target amount. Zaslav will also qualify for annual equity awards following the separation under the Streaming & Studios company's equity incentive plan. The target value of the awards will be $15.5 million in the first year that Zaslav receives an equity grant from Streaming & Studios and will decline to an annual target value of $7.5 million per year thereafter. Zaslav assumed power at Warner Bros. Discovery immediately after the merger between the two, and his strategy (which has often been criticized by consumers and fans alike) was to begin cutting expenses and projects while overseeing a large number of layoffs. The re-splitting of the company has been mocked quite a bit online, though Zaslav has put a happy spin on the development: 'The cultural significance of this great company and the impactful stories it has brought to life for more than a century have touched countless people all over the world,' he said, in a statement associated with the split. 'It's a treasured legacy we will proudly continue in this next chapter of our celebrated history.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
In Spain, Warner Exec Explains the HBO Max Rebrand
Warner Bros. Discovery's decision to return to the HBO Max brand for its streaming service was the elephant in the room that Jose Maria Caro, director of Max Local Original Production at WBD, Spain, addressed right at the start of his appearance at the Conecta Fiction & Entertainment in Cuenca, Spain on Tuesday. 'Many of you are asking what has happened,' he said, addressing the industry audience directly, showing a slide with an advertising message with the slogan 'Max becomes HBO Max.' More from The Hollywood Reporter Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and 'Jurassic World Rebirth' Cast Stun London at World Premiere Eurovision Drama and 'The Nameless': Movistar Plus+ Exec Touts Focus on Event Programming Lewis Hamilton Signed Off on Brad Pitt and Damson Idris' Driving in 'F1: The Movie' 'What does it mean? In terms of the content, we can't lose the value of HBO,' the top executive explained. 'It contributes much value.'Caro highlighted that the brand also represents the core 'editorial line' and focus areas for the company when greenlighting original content. 'The creator is the pillar from which we begin a project,' he shared, emphasizing that ideally that a creator is 'someone with great ambition who can make a difference in the market.' Developing appealing original characters is also in focus for his team, he shared. 'We are also looking for new characters,' the exec said. Highlighting that HBO Max is about quality rather than volume of original fare, Caro also reiterated WBD's commitment to local originals. 'Without local productions, we are not going to reach the local spectators,' he explained. If they also travel, that is a wonderful bonus, he added. Originally, the WBD streaming service launched as HBO Max in 2020. Then, in 2023, the company controversially changed the name to simply Max — ditching the venerable network brand name. Ahead the company's mid-May upfront presentation in New York at Madison Square Garden, WBD president and CEO David Zaslav unveiled though that the name will be changed back to HBO Max. The powerful growth we have seen in our global streaming service is built around the quality of our programming,' he said in a statement back then. 'Today, we are bringing back HBO, the brand that represents the highest quality in media, to further accelerate that growth in the years ahead.' 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
HBO and CNN to Split
In this podcast, Motley Fool Chief Investment Officer Andy Cross and contributor Jason Hall discuss: Warner Bros. Discovery's plans to split up. Reddit vs. Claude. To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center. When you're ready to invest, check out this top 10 list of stocks to buy. A full transcript is below. Before you buy stock in Warner Bros. Discovery, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Warner Bros. Discovery wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $660,821!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $886,880!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 791% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 174% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 This podcast was recorded on June 09, 2025. Andy Cross: Warner Brothers files for divorce. You're listening to Motley Fool Money. Welcome to Motley Fool Money. I'm Andy Cross, joined here by Jason Hall. Hey, Jason. Jason Hall: Hey, Andy. Andy Cross: Jason, let's jump right into the big news of the day. Warner Brothers Discovery is planning to split itself up into two distinct companies. Warner Brothers Global Networks, that's home to CNN, and Warner Brothers Streaming and Studios, that's home to HBO and other things, too. Jason, since the merger between Warner Media and Discovery that created this $25 billion media company in 2022, shares are down 60%. Now, they're up 7% today, so maybe investors have some hope that WBD is finally creating, maybe it's equivalent of Netflix. Is this good for shareholders? Jason Hall: I think that's the upside here is that we're finally seeing somebody make a true competitor to Netflix a stripped down streaming and content production company that's hyper-focused on that and not this legacy media giant that throws out a streaming brand, but still has all of its legacy businesses that are in transition it's having to navigate through. I think the response we're seeing with the stock price, Andy, is as much wanting to see change, just some positive change as maybe that bullishness Last week, we got an overwhelming rejection of management's pay package by shareholders at the annual meeting. More than 60% of voters voted against management's compensation package. Now, of course, that's a non-binding "advisory vote", but it's pretty clear that shareholders have not been happy about how things have gone. Andy Cross: Jason, it's interesting that legacy business, that's really the global networks. You're talking like CNN and Discovery, TLC, Food Network, that kind of thing. The streaming is the more exciting, by the way, that first part of the business is the bulk of the revenues, the bulk of the cash flows, and the bulk of the profits, also getting a bulk of the debt. The streaming one is much faster growing, profitability turning. That's home of Warner Brothers, DC Studios and television, and of course, HBO. Interesting, the Networks is going to own 20% of the streaming business. Jason Hall: Well, for good reason, it's going to be the larger business. It's taking on more financial risk with the debt that's going to be flowing over to it. I think that investors that are going to be looking at that legacy business, look, it's still in decline. It's going to take time for it needs to be financially managed well to milk that cash cow business as long as possible. There needs to be a little bit of a sweetener there for some growth and I think that's where it's happening. The interesting thing, too, if you look at how they're breaking up the business and who's going to run it, David Zaslav is going to remain the CEO of the growth oriented, really content focused business, which is more in his wheelhouse, and the CFO of the combined business now, where you want those combined skills of allocating capital and making smart financial management decisions to pay down that debt, take excess cash, buy back shares, maybe pay a nice dividend at some point along the lines. I think you can see the strategy of what they're trying to build already. Andy Cross: Jason, I think we've said that Netflix, in a lot of ways, has won the streaming battle. You have YouTube dominance in there as well. I see this as a good positive news, by the way. They had talked about focusing the businesses and separating them. This isn't a huge surprise. I think maybe the fact that it happened now is a little bit probably maybe more surprising. But the fact that they are now making this official taking this conglomerate and splitting it up into this, I think it is a reaction to the Netflix and YouTube success. Of course, we have Apple with its streaming service and Amazon with its streaming services, too, and then we can't forget about Disney. Jason Hall: That's right. I think to me, that's a big part of the story here is that if you look at what's happened across media, really since right before and then the pandemic it seemed a lot of things hit a critical mass, where so many more people were moving to streaming, Disney Plus was launched and had explosive growth. But at the same time, these legacy businesses still had all of their existing cash cows, which are the linear model, cable, all of that kind of thing. Of course, we've seen so much integration. They own the studios, too, and the movie industry is still well below where it was five or six years ago. It's how hard it is to get through that transition. You mentioned Netflix and YouTube. They didn't have any of those legacy things to have to navigate through transition. They were the new model of content directly for the Internet releasing it immediately. It's clear, I think that something had to happen from the structural side of the business, not just what you'd go to market with with your customer, like Peacock Plus and Disney Plus and that sort of thing. Hopefully, maybe that's what investors are going to get here. Andy Cross: Jason, Warner Brothers has now, I think the direct to consumer, streaming part is like 120 million subscribers. Netflix is more than 300 million. Netflix does about $17 in revenue per user here in the US, Warner Brothers does about 12. Netflix International is probably more around $10, and Warner Brothers is probably more around four. I think if investors are looking to this case to increase the profitability of the streaming side, this would help because they have to be more competitive against the likes of Netflix, which is clearly leading the way. Jason Hall: They have to. I think we're starting to get to this point where we've seen these legacy media companies have all shot their shots. They've made the attempt. They've launched the media the streaming products. But again, the combined businesses has been one of the challenge. Let's not even talk about the international market because these companies are going to make their first money in North America. Is the North American market big enough for all of these existing streaming services that they need to get 15 to $20 a month, and they need 80 million plus subscribers just to be sustainable. I don't think the market's big enough. This is a split up, but I think we're going to see some continued consolidation of content, maybe not where the businesses are combining, but licensing of content, maybe the old model that Netflix benefited from before. Jason Hall: I think we're heading back that direction. Andy Cross: I think that's right. I think the licensee side, you see this with Comcast now separating off some of its properties into the Versant company like USA Networks and CNBC, MSNBC, Golf Channel. They're keeping Embassy and Bravo and Peacock, that will stay with the parent company, but they're separating out, as well, trying to figure out the licensing deal, even between these two companies. How do the sports licensing as Netflix and others are going further into sports programming? The bulk of the sports side is going to be on the network side. How do they overlap there? Of course, there's an international distribution to between the two companies. Still a lot to understand how these two companies interact and what they actually look like post-spin off. That's why I'm finding it a little bit hard right now to be tremendously bullish on buying the stock right now and adding more to it, but I am more excited for them to be separate companies. Jason Hall: I think that's right. I'd like to talk a little bit about Disney and the Amazons and Apples of the world, too, because I think there is a little bit of compartmentalization that we're going to see in the industry. Number 1, think about Disney. I think Disney is going to be the one consolidated media company that makes all of it work. We've seen the transition with Disney Plus, where they're at the point now where I think they can make money. They're going to get better operating leverage there. But they've got so much content and the brand recognition is so big. I think that's one that can get to scale, and they can make it all work. But then you look at the Amazons of the world. This is a different business model. Amazon is an ecosystem. Nobody subscribes to Prime for Prime Video. Andy Cross: It's a bonus. Jason Hall: Exactly. It's part of the ecosystem to make it a little bit stickier. I think that's a thing to remember about Amazon. They're playing a little bit different game than really anybody else in this space. Apple, their model is a little more curated with their content. Maybe you could almost say like HBO was 15 or 20 years ago in the cable model, where they wanted to have one or two really big shows a year, and then run those shows for multiple years. I think maybe that's more Apple's model because they're focused upstream. Andy Cross: HBO has some of those great properties. This is one reason I think investors were somewhat encouraged by them coming together because of those properties with HBO shows like Secession and the Gilded Age, movies, the Upcoming Superman, Sinners, the Voice show. They have these great brands to be able to leverage and turn more into hopefully profits on both the streaming side and then the focus on the network side. Jason Hall: Andy, but this is the same company that also took HBO out of the name of their streaming product. Andy Cross: I just find that really head scratching. I don't know why. I'm glad that they brought it back, to some degree, because that mean HBO is the brand. Hopefully, I don't know the ultimate name of this company, but maybe it is something with HBO because it is the most well known brand. Although the studios business continues and Warner Brothers is a huge name, too. It's just that HBO is really the driver of the streaming. Jason Hall: No. That's exactly right. Having the max in there, even though you and I are old enough to remember Cinemax, which eventually got renamed Max. But HBO Max makes sense because it's HBO and then a bunch of other stuff. That makes sense. The corporate name, we'll see what they decide to do because they are still making all the studio content. A lot of value there. We got more stuff to talk about, though. Andy Cross: They got $38 billion of gross debt. Most of that's going to go to the network side, but they're going to have the cash flow to be able to pay that down. Again, like you said, the CFO going over there to manage that business. Joel Greenblatt, the great author investor who wrote, You Can Be a Stock Market Genius, talked about spin offs. Sometimes it's the ugly debt Level 1 that does actually better. My question before we get to our next story is, which one of these businesses are you most interested in and what are you thinking about the stock today? Jason Hall: It's funny because we were in our pre-planning, we were joking around about that. This is exactly the situation where depending on what happens with the split, the story of HBO unleashed almost, the idea of fully leveraging all of those resources without the legacy history, the story could cause that stock to do great things initially that hurts the long term performance. Everybody forgets about this legacy declining sleepy business. They could end up outperforming two or 300 percentage points over the next decade. I think we have to give this time to play out, see what the structures look like, give them a few quarters to stand-alone businesses, and then weigh in. Andy Cross: I'm going to wait and see mode, too, as it is right now, but information's changing every time, every day. Jason Hall: That's right. Andy Cross: After this, we're moving on to Reddit. Jason, moving on to another media story that actually is related, and we'll get to that in a second. Last week, the user community of hundreds of millions, Reddit, sued the owner of the Claude chatbot Anthropic for illegally scraping post. Reddit has licensing deals with Google and OpenAI already. It's very naturally protective of its IP, but it is not the only one who is trying to leverage AI based on the IP it has accrued over the years. Jason Hall: You remember Curiosity Stream, right, Andy? Andy Cross: I painfully remember Curiosity Stream, yes. Jason Hall: [laughs] For those that don't know, this is it's a media streaming business with fact-based content. Went public via SPAC, back in the SPAC craze 2020, 2021 area. You and I both owned some shares, Andy. You walked away sooner than I did. Andy Cross: Well, I walked away at a very large tax loss on it. I took a tax loss on it to offset some gains. I had hoped for better to be able to leverage the documentary assets curiosity has, and that did not work out in the time frame that I had owned this. Jason Hall: Well, you had good reason. The business was really struggling with weak growth, high expenses. It did look like it was going to get to scale and survive on its own balance sheet. The only reason I didn't sell Andy is because I owned it in a retirement account, so there was no tax loss harvesting. I wanted to see how John Hendricks new business was going to play out. John Hendricks, of course, the founder of Discovery Channel, taking us back to our first story. The stock bottomed at $0.45 a share February last year. It's a 13 bagger since then. It's now part of the Russell 2000, and, Andy, it pays a dividend. Andy Cross: How much of that is on the licensing deal? Jason Hall: That's the thing that ties us back together. If you look, they have these five pillars of growth. The first pillar of growth is licensing content to tech companies to use the audio and video to train AI models. Andy Cross: It's crazy. Jason, just today, we saw the British Film Institute put out a report that claimed that 130,000 titles had now been scraped for their AI purposes. Now they were worried and complaining about it for the institute, but that is going to be somewhat of a model, somehow of a business model for some of these content creators like perhaps, WBD. Jason Hall: I think that's exactly right. It's a reminder that this technology is pervasive and the smart companies and the law of unintended consequences, right, Andy? Winners from technological disruption can come out of surprising places. Andy Cross: Well, we'll see how it all unfolds. Thanks so much for joining me today, Jason. Jason Hall: This was great. Good to be on. See you next time, Andy. Andy Cross: That does it here for us at The Motley Fool. As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy stocks or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows Motley Fool editorial standards and is not approved by advertisers. Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. To see our Fool advertising disclosure, please check out our show notes. For Jason Hall, our producer Dan Boyd, and the Motley Fool team, I'm Andy Cross. Thanks for listening and Fool-on. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Andy Cross has positions in Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Netflix, Walt Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery. Jason Hall has positions in Walt Disney. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Walt Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery. The Motley Fool recommends Comcast. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. HBO and CNN to Split was originally published by The Motley Fool
