@Courtesy of Comcast 

According to published reports, Comcast has hired Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as financial advisors in its pursuit of a potential takeover of Warner Bros. studio and streaming services. Last week, the CEOs of the two principals—David Zaslav of Warner Bros. Discovery and Brian Roberts of Comcast, hunkered down to discuss their options.

Details about their conversations were not available, though Zaslav was quoted as saying that an “active process” of negotiation is underway.  Mike Cavanagh, the president of Comcast who will soon assume the role of CEO, was also quoted as saying that Comcast woul “look at things that are trading in the space around our industry,” suggesting he would be receptive to making a deal for WBD’s studio and streaming services once its own cable network had completed its spinoff into Versant by the end of 2025. Also last week, CNBC’s Alex Sherman reported that Warner Bros. Discovery would be announcing its future plans by Christmas. 

Meanwhile, Netflix is also making a bid for WBD’s studio and streaming operations and has hired Moelis & Co. to evaluate its options, while Paramount has to date submitted three bids for Warner Bros. Discovery, which rejected the offers as too low (they ranged between $19 and $23.80 per share).

 

All this while Warner is still poised to split into Warner Bros. and Discovery Global by April of 2026. WBD is on the record as considering an alternative plan that would enable the merger while its Discovery Channel would be spun off to its shareholders..

The Comcast bid for Warner Bros. would also need to navigate the challenges involved in obtaining regulatory approval from the Trump administration, but Cavanagh does not place a high priority on this factor.

In a podcast interview with Charlie Rose on October 23, John Malone, Warner’s CEO emeritus, was quoted as saying that he believes Comcast shareholders “can have ownership in a company that combines Warner with Comcast, with NBCUniversal.” But he doubted whether Brian Roberts would be able to have “effective, hard control” of the merged company. “I believe that if Brian is willing to reduce his level of control of the resulting combination, then I think a deal could be done and get through regulatory approval. But these are all fine-tuning things.”

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