Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav believes there’s “a lot of big [male] energy” among potential bidders for his media empire – enough that he still believes he can sell it for as much as $70 billion, or around $30 a share, On The Money has learned.
We are, of course, a family newspaper, hence the parenthetical on the quote. Plus this could be just wishful thinking. Keep in mind, any number with a “3” in front of it would be a stiff premium to the $23.50 a share offer by Paramount Skydance’s David Ellison. Paramount, meanwhile, is worth just $56 billion, or around $23 a share.
But Zas, as he is known in media circles, is boasting of the interest he’s getting for WBD, with its top ranked studio, No. 3 streaming service, HBO and CNN, not to mention the IP that a buyer would own of shows like “Harry Potter” and “The Sopranos” that can be retrofitted in the age of AI.
The “energy” was on full display last Thursday when Zaslav was honored by the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation, receiving its humanitarian award for his work combating antisemitism. Attendees included Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Oprah to name a few.
Also spotted were players eying a bid for WBD. Among them: David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount Skydance along with Makan Delrahim, his top lawyer and former Trump DOJ antitrust chief who will be navigating the DC regulatory shoals.
Likewise in attendance: Ted Sarandos of Netflix, which as we first reported, is interested in WBD’s streaming service and its studio as a way not to have to build one of its own.
Zas gave an impassioned speech about his family (he met his future wife at shul) and how many of them perished during the holocaust in Poland, just around the time of the Warsaw uprising. He then gave a tribute to CNN reporters for telling “stories” that matter.
The sale of WBD infused much of the table chatter before and after the tributes, and the way Zas is talking, the “male energy” is still going strong. As we first reported, Brian Roberts of Comcast is interested, seemingly unfazed, at least for now, by the animus he faces from the Trump White House for operating the MAGA-hating cable channel MSNBC.
Roberts is trying to cozy up to Trump; he is taking heat from his left-wing viewers for a multi-million-dollar donation to fund Trump’s new White House ballroom. As his people are quick to point out, Comcast is now spinning MSNBC and the rest of its cable properties into a new company.
Zas also thinks Apple and Amazon could buy parts of WBD.
That brings us to David Ellison, the movie producer son of mega billionaire and Trump pal, Larry Ellison. David, just 42 years old, is looking to build maybe the biggest media empire in the world. Since his takeover of Paramount, he has been squeezing the lefty-bias out of the company, particularly at CBS. Journalist Bari Weiss is now in charge and exit visas are being issued to talent who don’t want to get with the new program.
Yes, The Donald would prefer Paramount Skydance buying every media company in existence. But Zas believes there are people at DOJ antitrust – non-political staffers who have a big say in regulatory approval – who might well greenlight even Comcast winning a bidding war because without the cable properties it’s difficult to make a sound antitrust case that can withstand a court challenge.
All of which Zas hopes will pressure Ellison — who is best suited to buy WBD given the bank of his old man and the relationship with Trump — to increase his bid substantially. Or as one media executive put it: Zas “still thinks the final bid will have a ‘3’ in it. He loves the certain type of energy in the room.”
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