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Naked Gunnar

A close reading of the latest Wall Street-media riddle: why Zaz’s financial henchman can’t arouse analysts while Warren can sweep his Shari losses under the post-EBITDA carpet.

Gunnar Wiedenfels
David Zaslav and Gunnar Wiedenfels have cleverly managed to pay down some $15 billion of WBD’s mountainous debt—yet Wall Street analysts have not rewarded their efforts. Photo: Sven Hoppe/picture alliance/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
February 28, 2024

I confess I was feeling charitable on Sunday when I wrote about the positive aspects of David Zaslav’s financial journey at Warner Bros. Discovery. It’s essentially a publicly traded leveraged buyout that was saddled with $55 billion in debt upon its birth, along with a stub of equity value. In my opinion, Zaz’s best hope for creating more equity value has always been the unspectacular option of paying down that mountain of debt as quickly as possible—which isn’t that quickly, given the macroeconomic circumstances faced by WBD in particular and Hollywood more generally.