Discovery Communications COO to Leave by year end (DISCA)

Discovery Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: DISCA), a global nonfiction media and entertainment company, today announced that its COO, Peter Liguori will leave the company by the end of this year.

Liguori, who previously worked at Fox Broadcasting, is stepping down after spending two years as the company’s COO. During his stint at Discovery, Liguori has been responsible for the launch of a number of creative and brand marketing initiatives around the world. He also managed the successful launch of Discovery’s joint ventures in the The Hub, OWN and 3net.

Discovery Communications has decided to eliminate the role of COO following the departure of Liguori.

Commenting on Liguori’s departure, Discovery Communications CEO, David Zaslav said that Liguori’s leadership, enthusiasm and creative vision have brought a fresh and important perspective to the company. Zaslav thanked Liguori for tackling some challenging special assignments, including the launches of joint venture networks, and for substantial contributions he made at levels of the company.

Liguori, meanwhile, described his time at the company as incredibly rewarding and said that he has been privileged to have contributed to the company’s mission and to have helped so many networks and brands grow their ambition and accelerate their creative momentum.

Investors have reacted negatively to Liguori’s departure as Discovery shares have fallen sharply in trading today. Discovery shares fell to an intra-day low of $42.44 today, and at last check, they were down 5.50% to $42.58 on volume of 1.16 million.

Discovery shares have gained 2.11% so far this year, compared with a gain of 0.11% for the Nasdaq.
Last week, Discovery Communications reported its third-quarter financial results. The company reported third-quarter revenue of $1.09 billion, representing an increase of 18% over the same period in the previous year. The company’s net income for the third quarter of 2011 was $238 million.

Post Written By: Ed Liston Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.