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Key Takeaways
- Warner Bros. Discovery is considering spinning off or selling its Warner Brothers movie studio and Max streaming service.
- WBD shares have fallen by roughly two-thirds since the 2022 merger between AT&T’s WarnerMedia and Discovery.
- The stock rose nearly 2% Friday as investors considered the ramificiations of a spinoff.
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) stock rose Friday, lifted by a a Financial Times report saying the company might separate its movie studio and Max streaming service from its legacy TV networks.
The possibilities in play include selling off the movie and streaming assets or spinning them off into a separate company, the report said, citing sources familiar with the matter. Shares of the company rose a bit less than 2% in Friday trading.
The media company’s shares have lost nearly two-thirds of their value since the blockbuster merger between AT&T’s (T) WarnerMedia division and Discovery created the company in 2022.
Warner Bros. Discovery is also in play for a piece of the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) media rights package. The company received a proposal from the NBA giving it the opportunity to match a $1.8 billion bid for a package of games currently allocated to Amazon (AMZN) Prime Video, according to a CNBC report Thursday. Warner Bros. Discovery was given five days to make a decision.
Warner Bros. Discovery owns Turner Sports, which has broadcast “Inside the NBA” on TNT since 1989. The NBA’s media rights deal also reportedly includes games broadcast by Disney’s ESPN and ABC, and NBCUniversal’s NBC, for a total $76 billion package over 11 years. WBNA games, also included in the package, make up about $2.2 billion of the total.
CORRECTION: This article has been updated to reflect the number of years “Inside the NBA” has been televised and the reported NBA media rights winners.