What a difference the past year has made in the public perception of media giant Warner Bros. Discovery. Last summer, the company’s legendary film studio was celebrating the record-breaking success of BARBIE, which became the highest-grossing movie of the year. CEO David Zaslav was praised for his support of filmmaker Greta Gerwig’s vision.
Since that peak, the company has had to navigate a maze of challenging turns. Warner Bros. Discovery lost out in its pursuit of renewed broadcast rights for the NBA, sending the value of its cable assets plummeting. Last week as part of its second-quarter earnings report, the company wrote down the value of its cable TV business by a whopping $9 billion.
It has also begun a series of staff layoffs and canceled the release of several feature films. Employee morale has suffered, as well as the company’s external perception in the industry. A disappointing second-quarter earnings report drove down the company’s share price to an all-time low since Warner Bros. and Discovery merged in April 2022.
This run of bad news has opened up Zaslav to widespread criticism, with some questioning his fitness to continue. On the other hand, amidst all the turmoil, Zaslav has done a commendable job managing the WBD balance sheet. A significant portion of the outstanding debt left over after the company’s merger has been paid off or postponed until many years in the future.
Zaslav has focused on building up the size and profitability of the Max streaming platform, which has flipped over into profitability with nearly 100 million worldwide subscribers. These mixed fortunes in its different divisions have left many undecided on the overall trajectory of the company.
