Netflix Makes a Power Play with Cash-Heavy Warner Bros Offer
Warner Bros. Discovery is getting a lot of attention again as more buyers put in new offers. People who know about the talks, but aren’t allowed to speak publicly, say the company spent Monday reviewing a second round of bids.
One offer came from Netflix, and most of it was cash. These sources say the sale could come together in the next few days or weeks.
According to insiders, bankers from Paramount Skydance, Comcast and Netflix spent the long Thanksgiving weekend trying to improve their bids. Paramount’s offer is mainly supported by the family of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, and part of the money comes from Apollo Global Management and some Middle Eastern funds.
The bids are binding, so the Warner Bros. board can approve a deal quickly if it meets what they want. One person said the company still hasn’t called these bids final, and it’s open to another one if it has better terms.
Netflix, which leads the streaming industry, is said to be working on a huge bridge loan worth tens of billions of dollars. Warner Bros. reportedly wants $30 a share as per Bloomberg’s report, and the company’s chair emeritus, John Malone, has said that price is “possible.” The stock closed at $23.87 on Monday, giving the company a market value of about $59 billion.
Warner Bros., which owns HBO, CNN and its famous movie studio, officially put itself up for sale in October after getting several surprise offers for different parts of the business. Paramount, led by David Ellison, was already involved earlier with three offers to buy the whole company, including its cable networks.
Comcast and Netflix are only looking to buy the Warner Bros. film studios and the HBO Max streaming service. If one of them ends up with the winning bid, Warner Bros. would still move forward with its plan to spin off its cable channels into a separate company called Discovery Global. That spin-off could be completed by the middle of next year.
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