Warner/Discovery

[hanshotfirst1138]

I’m just mad about all the shit that’s been pulled form the streaming app or worse, won’t ever get a physical release.

[mwynn]

David Zaslav’s SpinCo: Warner Bros. Discovery CEO Outlines “Bold Choice” to Split Company
Zaslav and Gunnar Weidenfels detail the blockbuster unbundling of WBD: Decision "reflects our belief that each company will go further and faster apart than they can together."

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bu...&utm_id=613404

Zaslav will oversee the studios business, which will include the Warner Bros. film and TV studios and HBO Max, while Weidenfels will manage the global networks, including TNT, TBS, CNN and the former Discovery channels, as well as Discovery+. Notably, it will also include WBD’s sports rights, with the CFO suggesting that the rights could give it optionality down the line: “The US sports rights will reside at the global networks, and its management team will determine how best to monetize the streaming and digital rights over time,” Weidenfels said.

[oneway23]

Interesting development for AEW, with the weekly TV being simulcast on both cable networks and HBO Max.

Wonder if this affects plans to offer live Pay-Per-Views on HBO Max later this year.

[mwynn]

Here is something to keep an eye on.

a committed bridge facility of $17.5 billion provided by J.P. Morgan" and that "Global Networks will hold up to a 20% retained stake in Streaming & Studios that it will plan to monetize in a tax-efficient manner to enhance the de-leveraging of its balance sheet."

Seems like they are going to pay themselves to avoid taxes on that 17.5 billion.

[BluBonnet]

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[drb999]

This business stuff is way over my head.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by drb999

This business stuff is way over my head.

Apparently also way over Zaslav's head...

[oneway23]

Originally Posted by mwynn

Here is something to keep an eye on.

a committed bridge facility of $17.5 billion provided by J.P. Morgan" and that "Global Networks will hold up to a 20% retained stake in Streaming & Studios that it will plan to monetize in a tax-efficient manner to enhance the de-leveraging of its balance sheet."

Seems like they are going to pay themselves to avoid taxes on that 17.5 billion.

I'm not high right now and yet I feel stoned reading that sentence

[mwynn]

Originally Posted by oneway23

I'm not high right now and yet I feel stoned reading that sentence

J.P. Morgan gave them a loan. They are using that loan so that one of the sides can buy 20% of the other sides. Because of smoke and mirrors there will be no tax.

[ctujackbauer]

Originally Posted by mwynn

Here is something to keep an eye on.

a committed bridge facility of $17.5 billion provided by J.P. Morgan" and that "Global Networks will hold up to a 20% retained stake in Streaming & Studios that it will plan to monetize in a tax-efficient manner to enhance the de-leveraging of its balance sheet."

Seems like they are going to pay themselves to avoid taxes on that 17.5 billion.

Originally Posted by mwynn

J.P. Morgan gave them a loan. They are using that loan so that one of the sides can buy 20% of the other sides. Because of smoke and mirrors there will be no tax.

No, WB Discovery already owns that 20% (they currently own 100%) The bridge facility is just a short term loan because they're already so levered up that when they sell their stake in Global Networks they'll have funding in the mean time while the sale goes through.

They're trying to reduce long-term debt by selling off a bunch of legacy cable TV trash that is bringing down the company, like Comcast Universal and Paramount. Using short-term funding in a spinoff makes sense, the new spinoff (Global Networks) will have its own long-term debt eventually.

[mwynn]

Originally Posted by ctujackbauer

No, WB Discovery already owns that 20% (they currently own 100%) The bridge facility is just a short term loan because they're already so levered up that when they sell their stake in Global Networks they'll have funding in the mean time while the sale goes through.

They're trying to reduce long-term debt by selling off a bunch of legacy cable TV trash that is bringing down the company, like Comcast Universal and Paramount. Using short-term funding in a spinoff makes sense.

Oh it makes a lot of sense because that debt was going no where. Will be interesting to see what happens next.

[BluBonnet]

[mwynn]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

It is Shenanigans.

[ctujackbauer]

We all know what is going to happen to those companies after they're spun off; they're going to go down in flames to the dustbin of entertainment history.

Global Networks, Comcast/Universal's cable channels, there's almost no upside to any of them. They're lighting cash on fire at the moment. They might exist as a new public company for a brief moment, but then they'll disappear and all of the senior citizens paying $150 a month for cable will wonder why they can't get CNN or CNBC or (insert cable channel here.)

[Juan de Internet]

I’m curious what clever way vulture capital will find to wring blood from this stone when they eventually buy it for pennies (or maybe just penny) on the dollar.

[oneway23]

Universal's trash heap and WBD's trash heap are going to make a Voltron trash heap, aren't they

[BluBonnet]

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[Jay Mammoth]

Originally Posted by oneway23

Universal's trash heap and WBD's trash heap are going to make a Voltron trash heap, aren't they

And still not as big as the trash heap that was Snow White.

[mwynn]

Originally Posted by oneway23

Universal's trash heap and WBD's trash heap are going to make a Voltron trash heap, aren't they

They could build an SDF1 with the trash.

[BluBonnet]

Guess which company will get the lion's share of the debt...