Comcast is making a similar move with its media brands by planning to spin off most of its NBCUniversal cable channels into a separate, publicly traded company that it officially branded as Versant in May 2025.
Splitting the company into the two standalone publicly traded companies essentially undoes the Warner Media and Discover Communications 2022 merger, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Like Disney and Paramount Global, Warner’s ratings and revenue have declined as viewers continue to abandon traditional pay television for streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
Zaslav has also been under increasing pressure to boost Warner Brothers Discovery’s (WBD) drooping stock price, down 59% since the 2022 merger.