The Astonishing Amount Of Money Warner Bros. Discovery Lost In Its First Post-Merger Quarter
By now, anyone paying even the slightest bit of attention to entertainment news can tell there are big changes afoot at Warner Bros. Discovery. This should perhaps be expected given the recent merger between the two companies, but the events of the past few days seem to signal how far-reaching these changes are.
"Batgirl" and "Scoob! Holiday Haunt" were scrapped, and scripted titles being removed from the streaming service further fanned the flames of speculation that HBO Max would potentially be gutted as it merges with Discovery+. CEO David Zaslav's desire to rein in spending is by now no secret. Back in February 2022, as reported by Deadline, he even said of the then-upcoming merger, "Our goal is to compete with the leading streaming services, not to win the spending war."
Of course, mergers do tend to shake things up in entertainment. But this is especially so when the company is losing money. And to that point, a new report indicates that in its first quarter as a newly merged company, Warner Bros. Discovery lost a huge amount of money.
Warner Bros. Discovery lost $3.4 billion in the past quarter
Again, mergers are expensive, and Warner Bros. Discovery has apparently learned a firsthand lesson in that regard. According to Tony Maglio at IndieWire, the newly merged company lost $3.4 billion in the recently-ended second financial quarter. A cool $1 billion of that loss was reportedly due to expenses relating to the merger itself. In his report, Maglio notes that beyond the understandably expensive costs of combining the two massive companies, a major factor in the financial loss comes down to "how badly Warner Bros. Discovery whiffed on media analysts' consensus."
Of course, this news comes on the heels of the cancelation of "Batgirl," a decision allegedly made, in part, to secure a tax write-down (per The Hollywood Reporter), and the officially announced combining of HBO Max and Discovery+. If the past few days are any indication, this may portend more trouble ahead for the company and those who enjoy its scripted content, but with everything currently feeling in flux, we'll have to stay tuned to see how it shakes out.