Discovery ready for deals
August 1, 2014
David Zaslav, chief executive of Discovery, has signaled that his company is open to striking deals, particularly outside the US, while also contending that the television group would be fine on its own.
Discovery itself has been the target of much speculation, among a flurry of proposed deals has. Proposed deals in fixed networks and channel providers would, if they come off, leave Discovery relatively small (at $29 billion market cap) and potentially vulnerable to margin pressure.
“The cable consolidation raises some significant issues,”, Zaslav said: “We’re looking at the implications.”
The company is said to have held talks about combining with Scripps Networks, the owner of Food Network and HGTV. But Zaslav said that Discovery was focused on deals in Latin America, Europe and Asia.