Netflix reportedly made a mostly cash offer for Warner Bros. Discovery over the weekend
The WBD bidding war is heating up — what will the winner get?
To the victor belong the spoils… and, possibly, the world of film and TV as we know it.
While we enjoyed the long holiday weekend, a host of huge names like Paramount Skydance, Comcast, and Netflix had their bankers and lawyers working on a new round of bids for Warner Bros. Discovery, according to new reports.
Whichever way you slice it
The latter of those companies, Netflix, already long the biggest streaming service in the world, is reportedly interested in just the studio business and HBO Max streaming platform from WBD, offering a bid consisting mostly of cash for those assets, Bloomberg reported at the start of the week.
Comcast has a similar idea. The telecoms and media giant wants to merge the same two segments with its NBCUniversal division, meaning that a successful bid from either would mean that Warner Bros. Discovery — the home of mega media brands like HBO and CNN as well as huge chunks of IP like the “Harry Potter” franchise and DC Comics characters via its studio business — could still go ahead with plans to spin off its major networks, per the reporting.
But what of the companies that want the entire WBD pie? What would they get in a deal that could nudge toward the $75 billion mark, if suitors stump up the $30-per-share price that Warner execs want?
In a particularly dramatic-sounding Bank of America note on Monday, a group of analysts wrote: “The global media industry stands at the precipice of historic transformation.” Still, when you look at the brands under the Warner Bros. Discovery umbrella (assembled after a merger between the companies that make up each half of its name) and consider the behemoths that could one day possess some of them, the BofA writers might have a point.
