Paramount, Comcast, and Netflix submitted bids for Warner Bros Discovery, pushing for a huge development in the media business. The bidding was confirmed to Deadline by multiple sources, coinciding with Thursday’s deadline for non-binding submissions. A second round of bidding will follow once the details are finalized, at which point participants will be asked to submit final, binding offers.
After concerns with the rapid development of AI and its effects on the film industry, competition for WBD promises to remake Hollywood in its time of uncertainty, according to Deadline.
The transaction will require at least a year to be cleared by regulators via Deadline, but they believe that by December, the sale process can be concluded.
Hollywood’s main focus in recent weeks has been the fate of WBD, owner of prized assets like Warner Bros., HBO, CNN, and DC Comics. Deadline says Paramount is currently in the lead because its bid is for the full company, including its struggling cable network portfolio. Rival bids from Netflix and Comcast target only the media giant’s studio and streaming divisions.
According to Deadline, for WBD staff in Burbank, New York, Atlanta, and elsewhere, the idea of being acquired for the fourth time in a decade is understandably frustrating. Casey Bloys, who leads HBO and Max content, spoke on Thursday about the situation, telling employees to focus on their work and what they can control and not “all of that theoretical” possibility.
After a long time, former CEO of Discovery Communications and an ex-NBC exec, David Zaslav, formulated the $43 billion deal to combine Discovery with WarnerMedia in a transaction with AT&T in 2022, the company’s stock sank quickly, according to Deadline. Due to his transaction causing the price to remain low during three years of cutbacks, write-offs, rebrands, and redos, Zaslav became a target.
mxdwn reported the announcement of the possible takeover back in October, explaining that Warner Bros. Discovery will be undergoing corporate restructuring. The entertainment industry has recently experienced unusual dealmaking activity, with several media properties changing hands. For example, shortly before bidding on WBD, David Ellison’s Skydance acquired Paramount Global for $84 billion, a deal that gave the billionaire control of major assets like Paramount Pictures, the Paramount+ streaming service, and CBS, according to Deadline.
Deadline released the news that WBD would split into two companies–a studio/streaming arm and a linear networks arm–in 2026 came earlier this year. With this impending split as a backdrop, and the Paramount-Skydance merger freshly completed, Paramount immediately shifted focus, aggressively pursuing WBD and submitting the first of its three acquisition offers.