Paramount facing competition for Warner Bros. Discovery as Comcast could emerge as suitor

The list of suitors for Warner Bros. Discovery is poised to get longer – with possible bidders that include cable-TV giant Comcast, On The Money has learned.

As first reported by The Post, Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison is in talks with private equity giants including Apollo Global Management to join a possible bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery – a megadeal that could be worth more than $60 billion.

Sources said Ellison is casting for alternative sources of cash amid doubts whether his dad Larry Ellison – the second-richest person in the world – is enthusiastic about opening his checkbook for another major media acquisition following the $8 billion Paramount deal.

Another big worry for the Ellisons, however, is that Comcast may soon jump into the mix, according to sources close to Paramount Skydance. Insiders note that the conglomerate headed by Chairman Brian Roberts is in the middle of breaking out its cable TV properties into a separate company named Versant. 

Once that spinoff is complete, Comcast will consist of its Peacock streaming service, its Universal theme parks, NBC News and Xfinity – a unit that provides internet and cable services.

According to sources, Skydance is particularly worried about a possible Comcast bid because WBD’s deal-savvy CEO David Zaslav already has a strategic relationship with Comcast’s Xfinity unit to deliver content through the company’s internet service and cable pipes. 

It’s unclear which Comcast unit would make the bid; but the cable giant’s boss Roberts is said to be highly interested in WBD’s content as well as its top-ranked studio and HBO Max streaming service, now the No. 3 most popular.

“The feeling inside Skydance is that the most likely bidder will be one of the Comcast companies,” said one person with knowledge of Skydance’s deal machinations. 

A Comcast spokesman had no immediate comment; a Skydance spokeswoman had no comment.

As The Post has reported, WBD, which in addition to the No. 1 Hollywood studio owns HBO and CNN, recently turned to Goldman Sachs bankers to gauge the buyout landscape –  just as Ellison leaked he had his eyes on an all-cash bid for the company.  Other bidders Zas and Goldman have shopped to include Netflix and Amazon, sources say.

Still, it’s unclear when – and some say if – David Ellison will make good on his promise to bid on all of WBD with a massive cash offer. People close to Skydance say he can’t completely rely on his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who is hesitant to finance the bid for WBD alone.

“For cash reasons (David Ellison) has to cobble together people for a deal,” legendary investor Mario Gabelli tells On The Money. Gabelli owns shares of both Paramount and WBD and has been watching the deal drama closely. By his calculations, the Ellisons’ WBD bid could cost even more than $60 billion because of the $30 billion in debt on WBD’s balance sheet — and because Zaslav is shopping the company. 

“There’s a lot of moving parts here,” Gabelli said, including how much if anything Larry Ellison chips in from his own tremendous fortune to help make the numbers work.

Potential investors weighing the WBD deal include Apollo – which in spring 2024 had made a $26 billion, debt-fueled offer for Paramount before ultimately losing that race to Skydance, people with direct knowledge of the situation said.

Led by billionaire CEO Marc Rowan, Apollo already owns more than a dozen TV stations through its Cox Media Group as well as a major stake in Legendary Entertainment, a movie and TV production company.

Legendary is a partner in many of Warner Bros.’ top film franchises, including “Dune,” “Godzilla” and “A Minecraft Movie.” Paramount recently signed a multiyear deal to distribute some Legendary films in cinemas, Bloomberg noted in a Wednesday report.

Apollo appears closest to helping Ellison with the bid, sources said. Billionaire Stephen Schwarzman’s Blackstone, which owns stakes in Hollywood firms including Candle Media – the outfit founded by ex-Disney bigwigs Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs – has investigated a possible financing role but as of now not interested in participating, sources tell The Post.

Complicating matters further for the Ellison’s is Zaslav’s own restructuring to separate WBD into two units – one with his growth businesses, streaming and studios, and another with his cable properties.

He’s looking for a price just for the streaming and studio unit of over $30 a share – a significant premium to the $22-$24 a share leaked price tag the Ellisons leaked for all of WBD, while touting the recent string of WBD box office hits and his now profitable streaming service, HBO Max.