Discovery Shareholders Approve Plan To Go Fully Public; CEO Zaslav Sees Deals
This story was written by Joseph Weisenthal.
Any entity with Liberty Media (NSDQ: LINTA) DNA takes some time unpack, but Discovery should now get a bit simpler Wednesday shareholders of Discovery Holdings officially approved a plan to create a singular Discovery Communications (NSDQ: DISCA) Inc, owning both Discovery and Animal Planet. The shareholder approval marks a formal conclusion to a plan hatchedlast December between Discovery Holdings and Advance/Newhouse. See more in the release and further explanation from WSJ.
So what's next for the network? CEO David Zaslav told Bloomberg that the new arrangement gives Discovery a "chance to make opportunistic acquisitions." Specifically, the company is looking for complementary businesses (in the past, it has acquired Treehugger.com and HowStuffWorks) and more growth overseas. A pure Discovery currency could also help with matters of employee retention and compensationa pretty common justification for these type of arrangements.
By Joseph Weisenthal