Warner Bros. Discovery says it’s open to sales; Shares jump

Warner Bros. Discovery On Tuesday it said it was expanding a strategic review of the business and was open to a sale, sending the company’s shares 8% higher in premarket trading.

WBD announced the plans earlier this year Split into two separate componentsstreaming and studio business and global network business. Fielding has also been done Interested in takeout Since the new merger Paramount Skydance.

But on Tuesday, WBD said it had received “unexpected interest” from multiple parties and would now review all options. Meanwhile, it is still moving towards the previously announced separation, the company said.

“We are making significant progress to position our business to succeed in today’s evolving media landscape by advancing our strategic initiatives, returning our studios to industry leadership and scaling HBO Max globally,” CEO David Zaslav said in a statement. “We took the bold step of preparing to separate the company into two separate, leading media companies, Warner Bros. and Discovery Global, because we strongly believed this was the best way forward.”

“It is no surprise that the significant value of our portfolio is receiving increasing recognition from others in the market. After receiving interest from several parties, we have initiated a comprehensive review of strategic options to identify the best way to unlock the full value of our assets,” he said.

WBD has faced increasing financial challenges since 2015 2022 Merger WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc. , which loaned the company more than $40 billion. It has since made aggressive cost cuts, restructured its content pipeline and focused on profitable franchises such as “Harry Potter” and “Game of Thrones” spinoffs.

While the company has made progress in reducing debt, investors have remained somewhat skeptical of the company’s cable network portfolio as consumers shift to streaming.

— CNBC’s David Faber contributed to this report.

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