Warner Bros. Discovery Second Round Bids Due Dec. 1
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Warner Bros. Discovery has asked bidders to submit a sweetened second round of offers by Monday, Dec. 1, Deadline has confirmed.
The media giant led by CEO David Zaslav has been sitting on the first round of non-binding bids since Nov. 20.As reported, Paramount-Skydance is offering to buy the entire company,while Netflix and Comcast are looking to acquire the Warner Bros. film and TV studios and HBO Max.
WBD has indicated that it believes the sale process can be concluded by late December, although the transaction may require at least a year to be cleared by regulators. Bankers and executives on both coasts will be working overtime as new offers are due right after the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The bidders previously signed non-disclosure agreements and have been examining Warner’s books.
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The company launched a formal auction process earlier this year after receiving three bids from Paramount, which itself was just acquired by David Ellison’s Skydance in August. His father, billionaire many times over and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, is backing the bid.
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Comcast, which has a solid balance sheet, is in the process of spinning out the NBCUniversal cable networks into a separate company called Versant in a transaction that should be completed early next year. The WBD assets would reside with the parent company. Comcast, in past decades, has made separate attempts to acquire both Disney and Fox.
WBD was also pursuing a formal separation of its linear television business from studios and streaming and still has that option if it doesn’t clinch a sale.
Netflix, which has done very few big deals, preferring to grow organically, was a bit of a surprise bidder in the process.
Bloomberg first reported the new deadline.
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- Anonymous
I’m surprised they don’t just shutdown the studio and take the write off.
Probably still have vested options.
What a world.
Billions exchanged. Executives popping champagne and raking in fortunes while thousands of actual workers doing the every day meaningless task of RUNNING THE COMPANY will be fired in the name of “efficiency”.
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