Preliminary bids for Warner Bros Discovery are due November 20, when suitors must submit first-round, non-binding offers, Deadline hears.
David Ellison’s Paramount, which made three overtures before the formal sale process started, will be ready. Comcast and Netflix, both of which hired investment banks to explore a deal, are also expected to jump in. With Hollywood M&A being keenly observed from Capitol Hill, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) on Friday send a letter to regulators warning a potential Netflix–WBD combination would raise antitrust concerns and could damage consumers and industry jobs.
Parties interested in WBD previously signed non-disclosure agreements and accessed a data room to dig through the company’s financials and prepare preliminary bids. A second round of binding offers will follow. If there is to be a sale, Warners is hoping to have settled on a buyer by Christmas.
WBD was originally pursuing a separation of its businesses that would put those assets together in a new stand-alone company called Warner Bros. run by current CEO David Zaslav. Global linear networks would be under Discovery Global, led by WBD’s current CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels. Paramount has offered to acquire the whole company. Comcast and Netflix are looking at Warner Bros. studios and streaming.
On Netflix, Rep. Issa’s missive to AG Pam Bondi, DOJ antitrust chief Gail Slater, and FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson warned against allowing the dominant streaming platform in the U.S. to absorb a major competitor in HBO Max. The two streamers combined would have a more than 30% share of the market, “a threshold viewed as presumptively problematic under antitrust law,” he noted.
“Of further concern is that this consolidation would also diminish incentives to produce new content and major theatrical releases – evidenced by Netflix’s own statements dismissing movie theaters as “outdated” – which could undermine opportunities for the full range of industry professionals both in front of and behind the camera,” he said.
One Wall Streeter Deadline spoke with floated the idea that Comcast and Netflix could make a joint bid, with the NBCUniversal parent retaining HBO Max and the giant streamer the studios and IP.
Amazon MGM has been an interested party but it’s not clear where things stand.
Reps for companies involved either declined to comment or were not immediately available to comment.
The Writers’ Guild of America condemned what it called the potentially disastrous impacts of a merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery.
In a joint statement from WGA East and WGA West last month, the guilds expressed their intention to “block the merger” after Paramount’s second bid for WBD was rejected. “Merger after merger in the media industry has harmed workers, diminished competition and free speech, and wasted hundreds of billions of dollars better invested in organic growth. Combining Warner Bros. with Paramount or another major studio or streamer would be a disaster for writers, for consumers, and for competition,” the statement read. “The WGAW and WGAE will work with regulators to block the merger.”