If you thought David Zaslav had said all he had to say on the life and death of CNN founder Ted Turner today in his memo to Warner Bros Discovery staff earlier Wednesday, think again.
“Ted was a generational entrepreneur, someone who believed deeply in the power of ideas and in telling stories and building platforms that could inform, connect and inspire people around the globe,” the still WBD CEO declared at the top of the company’s Q1 earnings call this afternoon. His global vision for our industry was way before its time and presently powerful.
Then Zas made an odd shout out to his own mentor.
“Alongside Ted through much of that journey was John Malone, whose partnership strategic vision and shared belief in the power of cable helped build and strengthen many of these iconic businesses over decades, Zaslav said. Inevitably echoing his earlier letter to WBD employees, he went on to say: “In many ways, it was a full circle moment for John and me when Warner Brothers Discovery came together in 2022 and we had the opportunity to work with the great businesses and brands that Ted imagined and built.”
Um, OK. Biz and brands that have been sold off, again.
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To that, even before Wednesday’s Q1 earnings call started, it was announced that pitchman Zaslav, CFO and almost cable channel spin-off CEO Gunner Wiendenfels, and streaming chief JB Perrette would “not be taking questions regarding the proposed Paramount guidance transaction.” Besides more on maverick Turner’s death, talking about that transaction was kind of the point today of anyone really listening to the soon-to-exiting WBD execs.
Yet, Zas being Zas, the over $800 million parachuted CEO couldn’t help but bang on abut the more than $30 a share price WBD got from David Ellison’s Paramount – and that was just the start on today’s call.
He also gave props to the strong “30% year over year” growth of CNN and HBO’s powerful slate of Game of Thrones spinoffs and the return of Euphoria. To that, the verbose CEO pumped up HBO and streamer HBOMax as the real crown jewels in the WBD empire. Talking almost nothing but the Paramount purchase, Zas stated the Casey Boys-run HBO is a “piece of the business that you will see will be a huge benefit to Paramount when our deal closes together with their assets.”
“When” being the operative term.