\n\tPreliminary bids for Warner Bros Discovery are due November 20, when suitors must submit first-round, non-binding offers, Deadline hears.<\/p>\n
\n\tDavid Ellison\u2019s Paramount<\/a>, which made three overtures before the formal sale process started<\/a>, will be ready. Comcast and Netflix, both of which hired investment banks<\/a> 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<\/a>\u2013WBD<\/a> combination would raise antitrust concerns and could damage consumers and industry jobs.<\/p>\n \n\tParties interested in WBD previously signed non-disclosure agreements and accessed a data room to dig through the company\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \n\tWBD 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\u2019s current CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels. Paramount has offered to acquire the whole company. Comcast<\/a> and Netflix are looking at Warner Bros. studios and streaming.<\/p>\n \n\tOn Netflix, Rep. Issa\u2019s 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, \u201ca threshold viewed as presumptively problematic under antitrust law,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOf further concern is that this consolidation would also diminish incentives to produce new content and major theatrical releases \u2013 evidenced by Netflix\u2019s own statements dismissing movie theaters as \u201coutdated\u201d \u2013 which could undermine opportunities for the full range of industry professionals both in front of and behind the camera,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \n\tOne 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.<\/p>\n \n\tAmazon MGM has been an interested party but it\u2019s not clear where things stand.<\/p>\n \n\tReps for companies involved either declined to comment or were not immediately available to comment.<\/p>\n \n\tThe\u00a0Writers\u2019 Guild of America\u00a0condemned what it called the potentially disastrous impacts of a merger <\/a>between\u00a0Paramount\u00a0and\u00a0Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tIn a joint statement from\u00a0WGA East<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0WGA West<\/a>\u00a0last month, the guilds expressed their intention to \u201cblock the merger\u201d after Paramount\u2019s\u00a0second bid for WBD was rejected<\/a>. \u201cMerger 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,\u201d the statement read. \u201cThe WGAW and WGAE will work with regulators to block the merger.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Preliminary bids for Warner Bros Discovery are due November 20, when suitors must submit first-round, non-binding offers, Deadline…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":379828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[18422,171,4659,15329,173,67,132,68,27281,66550],"class_list":{"0":"post-379827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-comcast","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-netflix","11":"tag-paramount","12":"tag-tv","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-warner-bros-discovery","17":"tag-wbd"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115551629797519801","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}