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Zaz’s Financial Alchemy & The GunnarCo Perimeter

Now that WBD is splitting in twain, a series of complex deals—a $17.5 billion bridge loan, a syndication, bond buybacks, etcetera—are about to commence… all likely in the name of future transactions. Let the games begin.

David Zaslav
One of the big questions hanging over WBD since the beginning has been whether it would be able to pay down enough of its debt for the rating agencies to upgrade the company off the BBB cliff. Photo: JC Olivera/GA/The Hollywood Reporter/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
June 11, 2025

I’ve got to hand it to David Zaslav. His ability to keep news of the Warner Bros. Discovery split from leaking was an impressive feat of staying schtum, as my 90-year-old mother likes to say. There he was in Paris on Sunday, taking in the French Open men’s final between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz (seated next to Dustin Hoffman and his wife, Lisa), betraying nothing about what was to come the next morning. Moments after Alcaraz pulled off his stunning five-set, tie-break comeback, Zaz texted me that he thought the match was “incredible” and took “forever.” Then he was off to New York for Monday’s big announcement.