CNBC’s David Faber Admits Parent Company Versant’s Wall St Debut ‘Hasn’t Gone Well’

You can’t accuse CNBC anchor David Faber of ignoring his parent company’s fast-sliding debut on Wall Street.

Faber on Wednesday reported on Versant’s IPO, which has been a dud so far after shares of the Comcast spinoff company have dropped 26% since hitting the Nasdaq at the start of the week. Versant is home to a number of cable channels beyond CNBC, including USA Network, MS NOW, E!, and the Golf Channel.

“My parent company is now pubic, Versant. It hasn’t gone well the last two days,” Faber said.

Versant opened at $45.17 per share on Monday before closing the day down 13%; that slide has continued as the week has gone on, with shares down 8.16% to $33.30 by midday Wednesday.

(Photo Credit: Robinhood)

Faber made the comment while interviewing Warner Bros. Discovery Chairman Samuel Di Piazza.

Netflix and Paramount Skydance are both vying to acquire WB Discovery right now, and Faber said Versant’s rough week could be bad news for WBD.

“Global networks [are] not worth much of anything if you assume a Versant multiple,” he said.

Di Piazza politely said he believed WBD’s global networks — which include TNT, CNN, and the Discovery Channel — are much more attractive than Versant’s package.

“Well, with all due respect to CNBC and all due respect to Versant — which are both great brands and great companies, and Versant is going through the natural transition from a cable-dominated shareholder base to a new shareholder base — Discovery Global is different,” Di Piazza said. “t has a lot more scale.”

“It has a lot more debt too, Sam,” Faber shot back.

“It does have a lot of debt. But a lot of that debt can be discounted and bought back,” Di Piazza replied. “It is long-tenured debt, it has more cash flow, it is a different company.”

WBD’s stock price is trading for $28.60 on Wednesday — up nearly 20% from a month ago.

Watch above.