Warner Bros. Discovery cuts losses as streaming subscriptions top 131 million
Earnings report and streaming growth comes as the company weighs dueling M&A offers from Netflix and Paramount
Michael Buckner
Warner Bros. Discovery narrowed its losses in the fourth quarter as it was caught in a pas de trois with Paramount $PARA and Netflix $NFLX over the sale of the company.
The media giant reported a $252 million loss during the fourth calendar quarter of last year. That comes following a $494 million loss a year ago. Subscribers to HBO Max, meanwhile, topped 132 million, a 15 million jump from the fourth quarter of 2024.
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The streaming subscriber increase came as HBO Max launched in Germany and Italy. Pending launches in the United Kingdom and Ireland in a month should boost that higher. WBD said it expects "to finish the first quarter of 2026 with more than 140 million subscribers, well on our way to more than 150 million subscribers by year-end."
That's on track with the prediction it made a year ago about subscriber growth.
That growth is good news to both Paramount and Netflix, as they continue their battle to acquire some or all of WBD. With that acquisition still very much up in the air and with so many variables, Warner Bros. said CEO David Zaslav would "not be answering any questions” during the earnings call with analysts Thursday.
Quarterly revenues for the company came in at $9.46 billion, slightly beating analyst expectations. Shares were largely unchanged in pre-market trading.
That's because earnings are no longer the driver for Warner Bros. Discovery. The acquisition is. Last December, WBD accepted a proposal to be acquired by Netflix for $83 billion. Paramount Skydance continued fighting, though, launching a hostile bid and making a series of revised offers. The latest may have worked.
WBD, this week, said Paramount’s new offer of $31 a share could lead to a “superior proposal” to the deal it signed with Netflix. If it determines that to be the case, Netflix will have four days to counteroffer, as part of their existing merger agreement (which remains in effect for now).
Shareholders are scheduled to vote on the Netflix deal on March 20.