Both Netflix and Comcast are only interested in buying the Warner Bros. studios and streaming (read: HBO Max) elements of the company, not the cable TV-centric Discovery Global segment. Obviously, Comcast is already in the process of spinning off its own cable properties into the new Versant company; Netflix, meanwhile, has already sparked anti-trust concerns given that it’s already a major streamer. The company has also reportedly maintained that should they win, they will honor WBD’s existing theatrical distribution deals.
The prospect of Paramount Skydance buying the company (and it does seem like it would be the whole company from the most recent reporting) is uniquely troubling. Since Skydance purchased Paramount over the summer, the company has been very willing (eager, even) to help out the Trump administration, with CBS News being hit especially hard. The purchase of WBD would put the Ellison family in charge of CNN, and this is reportedly the merger that Donald Trump is most interested in making happen. (Variety notes that his disdain for MSNBC could be a potential stumbling block for Comcast’s bid.) But Paramount-Skydance did already make cash offers for WBD last month which were dismissed, despite being above the company’s valuation at the time.
Last month, the Los Angeles Times reported on those bids, suggesting that WBD CEO David Zaslav was not willing to give up the reins yet and wanted a chance to prove some of his many critics wrong. Being the head of Warner Bros. also comes with other perks; Variety reported separately yesterday that Zaslav hosted the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Lorne Michaels, Margot Robbie, Jonah Hill, Bette Midler, Kristen Wiig and many more for dinner at his Beverly Hills home the night before bids were due. He then got on a jet to New York to wait for the bids to roll in. He reportedly expects the process to be mostly settled by Christmas.
