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Has Zaz Finally Seen His Shadow?

Three years after the fraught inception of David Zaslav’s Warner Bros. Discovery, the company’s Q4 earnings report suggests that things are finally turning a corner—and investors seem to agree. But can Zaz continue to outrun the decline of the TV business?

David Zaslav
Where WBD goes from here is anyone’s guess, of course. Investor sentiment seems to be changing for the better. In the past six months, the stock is up 51 percent. But it’s also down the aforementioned 55 percent since the company was formed nearly three years ago. Photo: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
March 2, 2025

Back in April 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery came into the world with a slew of near-existential disadvantages—the company was burdened by a $55 billion debt load, a BBB credit rating, and a rocky operating environment for its array of linear TV offerings, cable channels, and Hollywood fare. The equity markets didn’t look kindly upon the Frankenmonster that David Zaslav had created through the combination of Discovery Communications, his challenged cable TV business, and the vestiges of AT&T’s Warner Media. Since the company’s formation, the stock is down 55 percent. The S&P 500 has risen 20 percent during the same time period.