Oprah and the Discovery Channel have agreed on a deal that gives the former talk show queen a stake of more than $35 million in Discovery Inc. The deal, which was announced Tuesday, gives Discovery the ability to own a greater percentage of the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).
Winfrey continues to serve as CEO and chief creative officer of OWN, though she now owns only a 5 percent stake in it.
“Oprah Winfrey has voting and dispositive power over the shares of Series A Common Stock owned by Harpo, of which she is the sole shareholder,” Discovery said in a regulatory filing.
The Hollywood Report said the new deal increases Discovery’s ownership in OWN from 73 percent to 95 percent. According to the report, Winfrey elected to swap most of Harpo’s interest in OWN for voting Series A shares in Discovery.
As of Monday, Discovery stock closing price of $27.37, the 1.34 million shares were worth around $36.7 million.
Winfrey’s Harpo Studios joined Discovery Inc. to launch OWN back in 2011. The network has served as her home for television since that time. In 2018, Winfrey partnered with Apple on a deal that would see her host and produce TV shows, films, and specials for the tech giant’s streaming service Apple TV+ in addition to her work for the cable channel.
The news of Discovery’s OWN buyout comes as the company is set to launch an international streaming service of its own, Discovery+, next month.
