When AT&T spun off Warner to Discovery, the new Warner got stuck with $58 billion in debt (their market cap is like, $18 billion). They've managed to clear that down to $40 billion today.
Meanwhile, last week they wrote down like $11 billion on their balance sheet, due to the devaluation of all the TV networks.
So long-term brand value isn't really worth a ton because they're in so much debt they can't borrow from future profits to pay current debts. The reason they're shutting down these websites is to do two things, first streamline their streaming offerings to just Max, and second to free up the licenses to all their content in the vault to sell to other streaming platforms for cash today.
And they're in so much debt that no one is going to buy them out. So there's going to be no brand in the long term if they don't fix it.
AT&T truly fucked them over, my prediction is in a year or two there will be a fire sale of former Warner assets. Netflix or Amazon buys the backlot.
Comments
Why... just why? It might help the studio save money in the short term, but they risk undermining its long-term brand
When AT&T spun off Warner to Discovery, the new Warner got stuck with $58 billion in debt (their market cap is like, $18 billion). They've managed to clear that down to $40 billion today.
Meanwhile, last week they wrote down like $11 billion on their balance sheet, due to the devaluation of all the TV networks.
So long-term brand value isn't really worth a ton because they're in so much debt they can't borrow from future profits to pay current debts. The reason they're shutting down these websites is to do two things, first streamline their streaming offerings to just Max, and second to free up the licenses to all their content in the vault to sell to other streaming platforms for cash today.
And they're in so much debt that no one is going to buy them out. So there's going to be no brand in the long term if they don't fix it.
AT&T truly fucked them over, my prediction is in a year or two there will be a fire sale of former Warner assets. Netflix or Amazon buys the backlot.