Warner Bros. Discovery stock jumped in premarket trading after announcing plans to split into two separate companies next year.
The Streaming & Studios company will include Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, DC Studios, HBO, and HBO Max, as well as their legendary film and television libraries.
The second business, Global Networks, will include entertainment, sports and news television brands including CNN, TNT Sports in the US, Discovery and the Discovery+ streaming service and some free-to-air channels in Europe.
David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, will lead Streaming & Studios. Gunnar Wiedenfels, the CFO, will CEO of Global Networks.
Both will continue in their present roles at WBD until the separation.
Zaslav was the architect of the combined WBD, which only began trading in April 2022.
Last week investors resoundingly rejected the CEO’s proposed pay package, which would have given him a 4% raise. WBD’s revenue has declined 10% in the past year, and its debt rating was recently downgraded.
WBD stock was set to open 8.6% higher as of 8 a.m. ET after premarket trading resumed following a halt for the announcement.
Zaslav said in a statement on Monday that operating as two distinct companies would give WBD’s brands the “sharper focus and strategic flexibility they need to compete most effectively in today’s evolving media landscape.”
Wiedenfels said Global Networks would work with distribution partners to “create value for both linear and streaming viewers globally while maximizing our network assets and driving free cash flow.”
The move comes after Comcast said late last year it planned to spin off some NBCUniversal channels, including MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Oxygen, E!, Syfy, and the Golf Channel.
NBC, Bravo, and the streaming service Peacock will remain under NBCUniversal, Comcast president Mike Cavanagh told NBCU employees in a memo viewed by Business Insider.
The “SpinCo” plan would take about a year and permit growth in NBCUniversal’s remaining assets, he wrote.
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