Warner Bros. Cooked HBO Max Subscriber Numbers, Misled Shareholders in Discovery Merger, Lawsuit Claims

An Illinois police pension board brought the suit suggesting “hundreds of thousands” of Discovery shareholders were duped

David Zaslav and Gunnar Wiedenfels
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, left, and CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels. (Getty Images)

Warner Bros. cooked its HBO Max subscriber numbers by as many as 10 million and misled shareholders in other ways that violate the Securities Act to complete its merger with Discovery, according to a class-action lawsuit that claims it could potentially represent “hundreds of thousands” of plaintiffs.

The lawsuit was filed last Friday in New York on behalf of the Collinsville Police Pension Board, an Illinois-based shareholder of Warner Bros. Discovery stock, which it accepted in trade for its pre-merger Class C common Discovery shares. At the time of the merger, Discovery shares were valued at $24.78; as of Tuesday, WBD shares were trading just above $11.

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