{"id":481997,"date":"2022-08-07T05:36:16","date_gmt":"2022-08-07T02:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/can-david-zaslavs-new-warner-bros-discovery-deals-work\/"},"modified":"2022-08-07T05:36:16","modified_gmt":"2022-08-07T02:36:16","slug":"can-david-zaslavs-new-warner-bros-discovery-deals-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/can-david-zaslavs-new-warner-bros-discovery-deals-work\/","title":{"rendered":"#Can David Zaslav\u2019s new Warner Bros. Discovery deals work?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a39bd5d5f6c2\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a39bd5d5f6c2\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/can-david-zaslavs-new-warner-bros-discovery-deals-work\/#%E2%80%9CCan_David_Zaslavs_new_Warner_Bros_Discovery_deals_work%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Can David Zaslav\u2019s new Warner Bros. Discovery deals work?&#8221;<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/can-david-zaslavs-new-warner-bros-discovery-deals-work\/#Mother_of_all_fiascos\" >Mother of all fiascos<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/can-david-zaslavs-new-warner-bros-discovery-deals-work\/#Swinging_a_heavy_ax\" >Swinging a heavy ax<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CCan_David_Zaslavs_new_Warner_Bros_Discovery_deals_work%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Can David Zaslav\u2019s new Warner Bros. Discovery deals work?&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--columnist inline-module--author\">\n<div class=\"inline-module--author__img\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"76\" height=\"69\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/08\/Gasparino_Charles_headshot.png?w=76&amp;h=69&amp;crop=1\" class=\"attachment-nyp_columnist size-nyp_columnist\" alt=\"Charles Gasparino\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/08\/Gasparino_Charles_headshot.png?w=152 152w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/08\/Gasparino_Charles_headshot.png?w=114 114w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/08\/Gasparino_Charles_headshot.png?w=76 76w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/08\/Gasparino_Charles_headshot.png?w=38 38w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/08\/Gasparino_Charles_headshot.png 706w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 76px) 100vw, 76px\"\/>      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Merging is always the easy part. The companies are usually willing to join \u00adforces. Bankers and lawyers are incentivized to get the deal done. Plus the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a> loves a good M&amp;A deal with photo ops of high-fiving CEOs and their grand plans to make history through the process of creative destruction.<\/p>\n<p>But then comes the heavy lifting: Successfully combining two often very different companies with different corporate cultures and creating shareholder value. I\u2019ve been around this business long enough to know that there\u2019s lots of destruction in big-time M&amp;A.<\/p>\n<p>Deals crash and burn at least as much as they pan out, maybe more. And what a racket it is for Wall Street, which gets paid even when their work ultimately produces failure on a monumental scale. David Zaslav\u2019s Warner Bros. Discovery might be the next one to fail for reasons that will soon become <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>arent.<\/p>\n<p>Consider the once mighty GE, a conglomerate built on theories about how bigger is better. Until it became crystal clear the conglomerate wasn\u2019t living up to its hype and needed to be broken up as shares fell to near penny-stock territory. The bankers who constructed those ugly acquisitions still haven\u2019t spent all the fees they generated on their ill-fated dealmaking.<\/p>\n<p>Then there are the travails of Citigroup. The 1998 mega-deal merged the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Travel<\/a>ers Group investment bank and insurance giant with commercial-banking icon Citicorp. It was based on the premise that a financial colossus could make money cross-selling investments and traditional banking products to large institutions and individuals.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1232895242.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Critics are mixed on whether his merger plan will be successful. \" class=\"wp-image-23361838\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1232895242.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2048 2048w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1232895242.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1232895242.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1232895242.jpg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Zaslav is looking for $3 billion in post-deal savings this year. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Gett<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In retrospect: Not really. The cultures of the businesses never quite meshed. (Banking king Jamie Dimon was even ousted in the chaos.) The cross-selling \u201csynergies,\u201d as bankers call them, didn\u2019t really materialize either, at least not enough to make up for all the bad stuff.<\/p>\n<p>Citigroup is still with us but only because of the generosity of the federal government and the American taxpayer: It was one of the most bailed-out banks during the 2008 financial crisis.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Mother_of_all_fiascos\"><\/span>Mother of all fiascos<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Now go back in your history books and look up the AOL Time Warner merger fiasco. For my money, there is probably no greater example of the destruction of shareholder value built upon a mountain of banking fees and failed promises of synergistic coupling than this dumbo combo.<\/p>\n<p>The $165 billion deal was announced with much fanfare in January 2000. It featured high-fiving CEOs and promises to set the world on fire by cross-selling old media (Time Warner\u2019s magazines, cable programs, CNN, HBO, etc.) with new media (AOL\u2019s then-popular Internet portal).<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignright\">\n    <\/aside>\n<p>That sounded good amid the irrational exuberance of the online bubble. When the bubble popped, so did the company\u2019s value proposition. Then came the great \u00adunwinding of the company\u2019s various assets.<\/p>\n<p>What was left, Time Warner \u2014 comprised of HBO, CNN, Warner Bros. Studios, TNT and Turner Sports \u2014 was defenestrated in 2016 as well.<\/p>\n<p>The latest sucker, AT&amp;T, bought the company for $85.4 billion, promising shareholders they would make the numbers work by using AT&amp;T\u2019s mobile and broadband distribution to sell Time Warner\u2019s programming (more synergies).<\/p>\n<p>But the telecom geeks at AT&amp;T really never liked the entertainment types at Time Warner (and certainly didn\u2019t understand the business). With shares getting crushed and costs rising, they turned to Wall Street once again, unloading Warner to Zaslav\u2019s Discovery Inc. to create a new media behemoth, Warner Bros. Discovery.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1019\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/Batgirl_1.jpeg?w=1024\" alt=\"'Batgirl' Leslie Grace | CREDIT: LESLIE GRACE\/INSTAGRAM\" class=\"wp-image-23328273\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/Batgirl_1.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1536 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/Batgirl_1.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/Batgirl_1.jpeg?quality=75&amp;strip=all&amp;w=512 512w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>The \u201cBatgirl\u201d movie was canceled before it ever was released for streaming in an attempt to save money. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">CREDIT: LESLIE GRACE\/INSTAGRAM<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The deal would finally (hopefully) capture those elusive synergies, since Zaslav knows how to make various media properties, in this case scripted and unscripted content \u2014 HBOs \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Game<\/a> of Thrones\u201d and Discovery\u2019s Food Network \u2014 work as one. Warner Bros. Discovery was also born with the size and scale to compete with Disney and Netflix in the streaming wars, shareholders were told.<\/p>\n<p>Even so, with size comes lots of debt that needs to be slashed. There\u2019s $55 billion worth sitting on Zaslav\u2019s financial statements like a pile of bad scripts. Competition is fierce over its streaming strategy \u2014 the alleged future of programming that isn\u2019t making as much money as insiders hope.<\/p>\n<p>And yes, those synergies have been hard to find since Zas \u2014 as he\u2019s known in media circles \u2014 formally took over the new company earlier this year. That is why his stock has been cratering. Warner Bros. Discovery last week announced a $3.41 billion second-quarter loss.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Swinging_a_heavy_ax\"><\/span>Swinging a heavy ax<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Zaslav is looking for $3 billion in post-deal savings. First to go was the CNN+ streaming service, as these pages reported. A big-budget likely flop, \u201cBatgirl,\u201d a woke reset of the DC superhero <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a>, was canceled before it could lose Zas even more money than the tens of millions already spent. As I was first to report last week, he\u2019s merging his streaming platforms HBO Max and Discovery+. Layoffs will follow.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, it\u2019s too early to put Warner Bros. Discovery in the same bucket as AOL Time Warner and the rest of the failures mentioned above. And it\u2019s hard not to root for Zas \u2014 he\u2019s one of the few honest guys also good at his job in this lousy business.<\/p>\n<p>And who knows? Maybe his streaming business might soon pick up. Suffice to say, the company\u2019s bankers couldn\u2019t care less because they will make money \u00adeither way.\n                        <\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/08\/06\/can-david-zaslavs-new-warner-bros-discovery-deals-work\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Can David Zaslav\u2019s new Warner Bros. Discovery deals work?&#8221; Merging is always the easy part. The companies are usually willing to join \u00adforces. Bankers and lawyers are incentivized to get the deal done. Plus the media loves a good M&amp;A deal with photo ops of high-fiving CEOs and their grand plans to make history through&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":481998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/GasparinoWEB-Aug7.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[132087,87539,76511,24183,640,70584,39146],"class_list":["post-481997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-8-6-22","tag-david-zaslav","tag-discovery","tag-discovery-channel","tag-hbo-max","tag-mergers-acquisitions","tag-warner-bros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}