“Leverage is relatively high for this [merged] company, but interest rates are quite low,” he told Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries, when asked about leverage. “This is investment-grade debt, long-term. The rate at which free cash flow will pay down that debt as well as the synergies” will help satisfy investor concerns, he added.
Fries noted estimates that Discovery and WarnerMedia’s debt would be about four and a half times trailing earnings. The companies have said their merger will close by the middle of 2022. Cost savings, Malone countered, will “easily go past” $3 billion to $4 billion a year. David Zaslav, the Discovery CEO who will also lead the combined company is a “force of nature,” Malone added. “I’ve never seen a guy with more energy and I think he’s extremely confident. If there’s anyone who can pull off this kind of combination, it would be David.”