Warner Bros. Discovery increased the restructuring charges against earnings it will be taking this year to $4.1 billion to $5.3 billion as it looks to cut costs and improve its bottom line following the merger of Discovery with WarnerMedia earlier this year.
The company had originally said that it expected the charges against earnings to be $3.2 billion to $4.3 billion, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
The merger left Warner Bros. Discovery with about $50 billion in debt and CEO David Zaslav has said that as his team digs into the WarnerMedia operations things look worse than expected.
The write-downs will include content impairment changes and development write offs of $2.8 billion to $3.5 billion, up from its original estimate of $2 billion to 2.5 billion.
Under Zaslav, Warner Bros. Discovery has canceled several projects, including several made-for-streaming films, and has been pulling content off of HBO Max in order to add to its write-downs and reduce royalties and other costs.
Also: Warner Bros. Discovery Moving HBO Shows to FAST Services
The company has promised Wall Street that it can reduce costs by $3.5 billion and has laid off hundreds of employees since the merger closed.
In its latest filing Wednesday, Warner Bros. Discovery said that its “restructuring efforts are ongoing and could result in additional impairments above the revised estimates. The restructuring initiatives are still expected to be substantially completed by the end of 2024.” ■
