Grappling with a mountain of debt, Warner Bros. Discovery is exploring the sale of a 20% stake in its prized studio and streaming business—home to HBO and DC Studios—and may do so before the company’s planned corporate split in 2026. The move is a direct play to raise cash and fix the company's balance sheet.
Deleveraging dreams: CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, the incoming CEO of the network-focused spinoff, framed the potential sale as a way to attack the company’s debt. Speaking at a Bank of America conference, he called it "a huge building block... to get an equity injection at the right valuation," signaling that financial stability is the top priority.
Jumping the gun: While the formal corporate division isn't slated until mid-2026, Wiedenfels confirmed that potential buyers are already circling. He noted that there have been interested parties asking about acquiring the stake ahead of the official timeline, stating "We’ve had some serious people asking about ways to get their hands on that."
The great divide: The plan will cleave WBD into two parts. One company, Discovery Global Networks, will take on the legacy cable channels and most of the debt, while the other gets the "shinier" Warner Bros. studios and HBO/Max streaming platform—the business where a 20% share is now up for grabs.
This is a clear signal of how intensely WBD is focused on paying down the debt from its massive merger. Management is willing to part with a piece of its most valuable growth engine to secure financial footing, a pragmatic move to ensure long-term survival.
The move is part of a larger trend of media giants unwinding their conglomerates, with companies like Comcast and Disney also separating linear assets from streaming. Meanwhile, WBD's future network business is also planning to create new standalone streaming apps for brands like TNT Sports and CNN, showing a dual strategy of shedding old structures while building new digital products.
