Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison is preparing an official takeover offer for Warner Bros. Discovery – and the prospect of a rival bid from Comcast is helping put a fire under him, On The Money has learned.
Comcast’s interest in Warner Bros. Discovery – also known as WBD – hasn’t been the focus of the bidding war speculation dominated by the likes of Netflix and Amazon. But as previously reported by this column, it’s a real concern inside Paramount Skydance.
A bidding war could take the total price of WBD from around the $50 billion Ellison is currently eyeing to upwards of $60 billion – which is exactly what WBD’s deal-savvy CEO David Zaslav wants.
“Comcast remains their biggest worry,” said a person with direct knowledge of Paramount Skydance’s thinking.
The Philadelphia-based cable giant headed by Brian Roberts could be a formidable competitor, even as it seeks to spin off properties including CNBC and MSNBC into a new publicly traded company, Versant, while keeping NBC, Universal Studios and its telecom unit.
Comcast is also highly profitable, with a cash position around $10 billion versus Paramount Skydance’s nearly $2 billion.
In the event of a bidding war between the two, the edge does go to Ellison because of his father, Larry Ellison, the Oracle co-founder who is now the world’s second richest man. Dad is also besties with President Trump, and any deal will get close scrutiny from Trump’s regulatory cops at the Department of Justice, the Federal Communications Commission and elsewhere.
Plus, Trump is no fan of Brian Robert’s media properties, such as the far-left, Trump hating cable network MSNBC and even its alleged “straight news” NBC network, which he believes also shows a significant anti-MAGA bias.
“Brian Roberts will really have to kiss Trump’s ass to get this one through,” is how one media executive with direct knowledge of the matter explained the situation.
A spokesman for Comcast and a spokeswoman for Paramount Skydance had no comment. A rep for Zaslav had no comment.
Ellison – who has stayed eerily silent since reports leaked last month that his media giant Paramount Skydance might bid for WBD – could disclose a takeover bid as soon as this week for the owner of the Warner Bros. studio, HBO and CNN, sources close to the situation said.
The process is fluid, and it’s also possible that a bid will get delayed once again or not submitted at all, the sources added.
On Wednesday, analysts at Wells Fargo issued a research report that predicted an imminent bid from Ellison above the $20 share soft offer it has already floated, predicting it will be “low $20/sh & hostile (aka public).”
“Independent directors will consider the offer vs the unaffected price and could form a Special Committee,” the report said. “A go-shop period could allow WBD to seek out a competitive process if there are others interested.”
Zaslav has said the company is worth more – as much as $30 a share for the studio and streaming business alone once it’s split from WBD’s cable assets. The breakup is scheduled for May, and that’s when he believes a real bidding war with the likes of Netflix and Amazon and Apple – and Comcast, too.
So far Zas has the backing of WBD’s board to play the long game, but that could change depending on how much money David Ellison dangles. Sources close to the latter say he doesn’t want to overpay.
To avoid a bidding war, Ellison is expected to strike imminently, presumably with some money from pops, but also with the help of private equity firms like Apollo, as The Post first reported.
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