Zaz’s Christmas Wish & Arnault’s Triumph

Bernard Arnault
C.E.O. of LVMH Bernard Arnault during Paris Fashion Week. Photo: Claudio Lavenia/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
December 18, 2022

Well, it’s no wonder that Warner Bros. Discovery is looking at more write downs than expected, and licensing out some of its valuable I.P., such as Westworld, to pay the bills. Ten dollars. That’s where the WBD stock is these days, down 61 percent since David Zaslav’s deal for Warner Media closed in April. That certainly has to hurt, especially the two biggest WBD shareholders, John Malone and the Newhouse family. But look, the original premise of the deal still makes sense to me: Zaz and his right-hand man, Gunnar Wiedenfels, are extremely well-qualified stewards of many of the old Time Warner assets. Marrying them with the cable powerhouse Zaz built at Discovery certainly seemed like a smart combination, all things considered.