New era officially underway as Warner Bros Discovery mega-merger closes

Warner Bros Discovery (WDB) will begin trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange today after the blockbuster US$43bn merger of Discovery and AT&T’s WarnerMedia officially closed on Friday.

David Zaslav

The closure of the transaction marks the completion of one of the biggest, and potentially most significant, deals in the history of the entertainment industry, bringing together Discovery’s factual might with WarnerMedia’s coveted scripted assets.

The newly combined Warner Bros Discovery group includes Discovery Channel, Discovery+, Warner Bros Entertainment, CNN, CNN+, DC, Eurosport, HBO, HBO Max, HGTV, Food Network, Investigation Discovery, TLC, TNT, TBS, truTV, Travel Channel, MotorTrend, Animal Planet, Science Channel, New Line Cinema, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and Turner Classic Movies.

WBD CEO David Zaslav, who was formerly the president and CEO of Discovery, said: “Today’s announcement marks an exciting milestone not just for Warner Bros Discovery but for our shareholders, our distributors, our advertisers, our creative partners and, most importantly, consumers globally.”

The closure of the deal came after a hectic week that saw the departure of a slew of high-profile WarnerMedia execs, including CEO Jason Kilar and Ann Sarnoff, who served as chair and CEO of WarnerMedia Studios and Networks Group.

A further six execs departed the company as Zaslav cleared house ahead of the completion of the merger: Andy Forssell (head of HBO Max), Jim Meza (executive VP, general counsel), Jennifer Biry (chief financial officer), Tony Goncalves (executive VP, chief revenue officer), Jim Cummings (executive VP, chief human resources officer), Christy Haubegger (executive VP, communications and chief Inclusion officer) and Richard Tom (chief technology officer).

Two of the most high-profile WarnerMedia execs remaining with WBD are Channing Dungey, chairman of Warner Bros Television Group, and Casey Bloys, chief content officer of HBO and HBO Max. Both will continue in their existing roles.

Zaslav also cemented the WBD senior leadership team last week, with many existing Discovery execs taking on expanded roles within the combined entity, including JB Perrette (CEO and president of Warner Bros Discovery Global Streaming and Interactive Entertainment), Kathleen Finch (chairman and chief content officer of the US Networks Group), Nancy Daniels (chief content officer for Discovery Factual Networks) and Bruce Campbell (chief revenue and strategy officer).

Gerhard Zeiler, who was president of international for WarnerMedia, and Toby Emmerich, chairman of Warner Bros Pictures Group, will also retain the same titles within WBD.

With the transaction now complete, attention will turn to how Zaslav and his team will craft a cohesive strategy that effectively brings together the somewhat disparate assets of Discovery and WarnerMedia. The exec has previously said WBD’s go-to-market strategy has already been drawn up, but what has been outlined thus far is light on specifics. He is expected to host the first WBD town hall at some point this week.

One piece of the puzzle that has been confirmed is that WBD will eventually combine HBO Max and Discovery+ into a single streaming service, though an exact timeline on the launch of that product remains unclear.

As it stands, HBO and HBO Max have a combined total of 73.8 million subscribers globally, while Discovery+ has around 22 million.

While WBD intends to go toe to toe with Netflix and Disney in the streaming wars, Zaslav has indicated that the combined entity has no plans to “win the spending war.”

The deal, unveiled almost 11 months ago, sees AT&T spinning off WarnerMedia and combining it with Discovery to create a juggernaut in both scripted and unscripted.

Zaslav added: “With our collective assets and diversified business model, Warner Bros Discovery offers the most differentiated and complete portfolio of content across film, television and streaming.

“We are confident we can bring more choice to consumers around the globe while fostering creativity and creating value for shareholders.”