Finance
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO Finding A Lot Of Skeletons In The Financial Closet

Photograph by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Pictures.
Getty Pictures
Warner Bros. Discovery simply introduced a a lot bigger than beforehand reported write-down on its library content material, placing some buyers on edge. In an SEC submitting, the corporate goosed its estimated impairment on content material cost from $2.0-$2.5 billion to $2.8-$3.5 billion. Whole pretax restructuring expenses are projected to be $4.1-$5.3 billion by 2024 versus the $3.2-$4.3 billion quantity it put out in October.
Sadly, the corporate additionally famous within the submitting that the restructuring is ongoing and “might lead to further impairments above the revised estimates.”
“It’s messier than we thought, it’s a lot worse than we thought,” stated CEO David Zaslav. “You opened up the closet, issues fell out. We’re discovering them. Some property are higher than we thought on the core—the expertise is best than we thought. However there was rather a lot that was unexpectedly worse than we thought,” he stated.
The corporate is clearly retrenching. It cancelled J.J. Abrams’ HBO drama sequence “Demimonde” which was stated to have a finances of greater than $200 million, in addition to the earlier announcement that it was going to desert ship on “Batgirl” and “Scoob: Vacation Hang-out” and administration has just lately added to the cancellation slate “The Massive D,” “Chad,” “Kill The Orange Bear” and different reveals on the Turner Networks.
HBO Max can be struggling and getting a serious rewrite, with applications similar to “Minx,” “The Nevers,” “Raised By Wolves,” (the Head of the Class” reboot), “The Time Traveler’s Spouse,” “Westworld,” and actuality reveals like “FBOY Island,” “Legendary” and “Discovering Magic Mike” are additionally disappearing.
Extra reveals are anticipated to be shoveled off of HBO Max and onto FAST (Free Advert Supported TV) platforms, though that will change in 2023 when it’s anticipated Warner Bros. Discovery will launch or announce plans for the launch of their very own FAST TV platform.
Exhibits like “Gordita Chronicles”, “Love Life”, “Made For Love”, “The Garcias” are additionally being dropped and the rights are reverting again to the studios and manufacturing firms behind them, however might ultimately find yourself within the package deal of FAST TV applications being offered, relying on negotiations.
“We’ve been faraway from HBO Max however we’re nonetheless finishng the season. So fortunately they didn’t halt manufacturing. We’re a couple of week away from being completed taking pictures,” Jake Johnson, the producer of “Minx” advised a reporter. “From what I’m listening to, S1 & S2 (and hopefully S3) will discover a new residence, the query is the place,” he stated.
These will now go available on the market primarily to “FAST” (Free Advert Supported TV) providers like Amazon Freevee, Roku, Samsung, Tubi Viacom’s Pluto TV, Walmart’s
WMT
Administration presumably is estimating they will get more money for promoting them to opponents than the reveals will generate in income from HBO Max. No exterior stats are revealed however executives at HBO Max clearly have detailed statistics on how many individuals are watching these reveals, they usually aren’t good.
“Warner Bros. Discovery continues to strategically assess how finest to maximise viewers and monetization alternatives. The corporate has just lately determined to license sure HBO and HBO Max authentic programming to 3rd social gathering FAST providers…” the corporate stated in a press release.
The change in technique is an about face following the merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery, from the prior technique to throw all the things attainable on the service to a extra targeted monetization technique. On the plus facet, final month the corporate raised its cost-synergy goal from $3 billion to $3.5 billion.

Finance
Bel Appoints Lynn Hutkin as Chief Financial Officer
WEST ORANGE, N.J., May 20, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Board of Directors of Bel Fuse Inc. (Nasdaq: BELFA and BELFB) (“Bel” or the “Company”) today announced the appointment of Lynn Hutkin as Bel’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) effective immediately following Bel’s Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be held May 27, 2025. She will be responsible for Bel’s financial strategies and will lead the global finance organization, including planning, treasury, tax, reporting and investor relations. In her new role Ms. Hutkin is succeeding Farouq Tuweiq, Bel’s current CFO, who as previously announced will vacate his CFO role immediately following Bel’s 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be held May 27, 2025, upon Mr. Tuweiq’s assumption of the President and CEO role on that same date.
Ms. Hutkin joined Bel in 2007 and has held roles with increasing responsibilities, most recently serving in the role of Vice President of Financial Reporting and Investor Relations along with her designation as Principal Accounting Officer for Bel, which she will continue in her new role (together with her newly added designation as Principal Financial Officer). In addition to her primary roles, throughout her tenure at Bel, she has also been a leader in a variety of other areas including mergers and acquisitions, bank financing, corporate insurance and employee benefit programs. Ms. Hutkin started her career at Arthur Andersen within the audit group and subsequently held roles of increasing responsibility within finance at companies ranging from an IT consulting start-up to a $250 million publicly-traded courier company prior to joining Bel. Ms. Hutkin earned her B.S. of Accountancy from Bentley University and is an active CPA in the State of New Jersey.
“I am excited to continue working with Lynn and to build upon the accomplishments we have achieved since we began working together in 2021,” said Farouq Tuweiq, Bel’s current CFO. “Bel has gone through a number of transformational steps over the past four years and Lynn has been integral in strengthening best practices at Bel and enhancing financial discipline, financial reporting and internal procedures and controls throughout the organization.”
“I’m beyond honored to step into the CFO role and very excited for the new journey ahead,” said Lynn Hutkin. “I look forward to the continued partnership with Farouq and our talented team in attaining our future goals.”
About Bel
Bel (www.belfuse.com) designs, manufactures and markets a broad array of products that power, protect and connect electronic circuits. These products are primarily used in the defense, commercial aerospace, networking, telecommunications, computing, general industrial, high-speed data transmission, transportation and eMobility industries. Bel’s portfolio of products also finds application in the automotive, medical, broadcasting and consumer electronics markets. Bel’s product groups include Power Solutions and Protection (front-end, board-mount, industrial and transportation power products, module products and circuit protection), Connectivity Solutions (expanded beam fiber optic, copper-based, RF and RJ connectors and cable assemblies), and Magnetic Solutions (integrated connector modules, power transformers, power inductors and discrete components). The Company operates facilities around the world.
Finance
Home Depot Q1 earnings: What to expect amid tariff pressures
00:00 Speaker A
Home Depot set to report its latest quarterly earnings before the bell on Tuesday. Yahoo! Finance’s Brooke Palmer here with what to expect from the home improvement retailer. So what do we got?
00:08 Brooke Palmer
Well, Wall Street expects it’s going to be a slow start to the year for Home Depot, most certainly, and that’s really as two key points really weigh on consumers. That uncertainty around tariffs, and also those elevated home prices, elevated mortgage rates have really continued to create challenges around the housing market, and that’s expected to have weighed on Home Depot’s first quarter, certainly as potential buyers were spooked off by those higher prices. If we take a closer look at what Wall Street expects here, they still do expect revenue to grow year-over-year roughly 8% to $39.29 billion. Adjusted earnings are expected to decline year-over-year to $3.59. Now, one key area here that all Wall Street has watching is that same-store sales growth number. For eight straight quarters, we saw negative sales growth for Home Depot, and in the Q4, that number turned around. Now, more bad news is expected on the same-store sales growth front. Wall Street does expect that it did fall during this quarter down 0.2%, but experts tell me that Home Depot should be a key winner in the long term here. They say that they have this pro business that makes up about half of their customer base. We know that they recently acquired SRS distribution, that’s professional business segment for roughly $18.25 billion last summer. So Wall Street optimistic that that pro business will certainly turn the tide here.
02:06 Speaker A
And what does Walmart’s recent warning, what does that mean for Home Depot, potentially?
02:12 Brooke Palmer
Right, well, two key things here is that they warned that tariffs would create higher prices. Some experts telling me that they that may have opened up the floodgates here in order for others to say, we too have to raise prices because of tariffs. In addition to that, we also know that Walmart loves to tout that they make a majority of their goods here in the U.S. Home Depot, a similar notion. They said a majority of their goods that we sell are produced in the U.S. Both Walmart and Home Depot, they both have some exposure to China here. And so really, you sort of relating those two. They might have to raise higher prices. We also know that Walmart reiterated their guidance. Could we hear similar for not just from Home Depot, but Lowe’s reporting the following day and, of course, Target after that. And so Walmart perhaps might have set a precedent here on what these next earnings will look like.
03:11 Speaker A
All right, we’ll wait and see. Brooke, thank you. Appreciate it.
Finance
Asian shares slide and US futures and dollar drop after Wall Street’s winning week
HONG KONG (AP) — Asian shares fell Monday and U.S. futures and the dollar weakened after Moody’sRatings downgraded the sovereign credit rating for the United States because of its failure to stem a rising tide of debt.
The future for the S&P 500 lost 0.9% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6%. The U.S. dollar slipped to 145.14 Japanese yen from 145.65 yen. The euro was unchanged at $1.1183.
Chinese markets fell after the government said retail sales rose 5.1% in April from a year earlier, less than expected. Growth in industrial output slowed to 6.1% year-on-year from 7.7% in March.
That could mean rising inventories if production outpaces demand even more than it already does. But it also may reflect some of the shipping boom before some of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods took effect.
“After an improvement in March, China’s economy looks to have slowed again last month, with firms and households turning more cautious due to the trade war,” Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a report.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.7% to 23,184.74 and the Shanghai Composite Index edged 0.2% lower to 3,361.72.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gave up 0.4% to 37,605.85 while the Kospi in Seoul dropped 1% to 2,600.57.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.1% to 8,333.80.
Taiwan’s Taiex was 0.8% lower.
Wall Street cruised to a strong finish last week as U.S. stocks glided closer to the all-time high they set just a few months earlier, though it may feel like an economic era ago.
The S&P 500 rose 0.7% to 5,958.38 for a fifth straight gain. It has rallied to within 3% of its record set in February after it briefly dropped roughly 20% below it last month.
Gains have been driven by hopes that Trump will lower his tariffs against other countries after reaching trade deals with them.
The Dow industrials added 0.8% to 42,654.74, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.5% to 19,211.10.
Trump’s trade war sent financial markets reeling because they could slow the economy and drive it into a recession, while also pushing inflation higher.
This week featured some encouraging news on each of those fronts. The United States and China announced a 90-day stand-down in most of their punishing tariffs against each other, while a couple of reports on inflation in the United States came in better than economists expected.
That uncertainty has been hitting U.S. households and businesses, raising worries that they may freeze their spending and long-term plans. The latest reading in a survey of U.S. consumers by the University of Michigan showed sentiment soured again in May, though the pace of decline wasn’t as bad as in prior months.
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