Zaslav Pursues Bidding War for Warner Bros. Discovery as Skydance Weighs Takeover
CEO David Zaslav has met bankers to solicit interest from tech and media suitors as an all-cash offer from Paramount Skydance looms, sources say
Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav has begun courting potential bidders for the company in an effort to spark a bidding war, even as David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance weighs a possible multibillion-dollar takeover offer, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Zaslav met earlier this week with bankers at Goldman Sachs to gauge interest from other media and technology companies, including Amazon, Apple and Netflix, according to the people. His objective, the people said, is to drive Warner Bros. Discovery’s share price substantially higher — possibly toward $40 a share — and to create leverage for either a sale at an elevated price or to use any stock appreciation to buy additional content.
The moves follow reports that David Ellison’s Skydance is preparing an all-cash bid for the combined studio and media company. Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns the Warner Bros. studios, the HBO Max streaming service, and cable networks including Discovery, TNT and CNN, saw its shares jump nearly 30% after news of Ellison’s interest leaked, reflecting investor anticipation of takeover activity. The company’s stock recently traded just above $16 a share with a market capitalization near $40 billion.
One person involved in Zaslav’s deliberations said the CEO believes Ellison is trying to preempt a competitive process and that any offer ought to be ‘‘really good’’ and in cash. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said Zaslav may opt to split the company as part of any transaction; he has previously announced plans to separate the business into two publicly traded companies, with its streaming and studio assets in one entity and the networks in another, a split slated for next April.
It was not clear from the people whether Zaslav would seek to sell Warner Bros. Discovery in its entirety or to market individual assets separately. A Warner Bros. Discovery representative did not respond to requests for comment. A Skydance spokeswoman declined to comment.
The reported interest follows several years in which Zaslav prioritized cost cutting and debt reduction after the 2022 combination of Warner and Discovery. The CEO has overseen a program to pare roughly $35 billion of debt and to streamline operations. Industry bankers said they expect Zaslav’s pivot toward actively courting buyers to reflect both a desire to capitalize on an improved regulatory outlook and the continued demand among big technology companies for premium content.
Skydance’s reported bid would come after the company closed an approximately $8 billion acquisition of Paramount, according to people familiar with that deal. Skydance is backed by Larry Ellison, the Oracle co-founder, who has been widely reported to have amassed a fortune approaching the world’s largest, driven in part by optimism about Oracle’s artificial intelligence businesses. David Ellison’s media ambitions come amid a changing posture from regulators in Washington, which some dealmakers say may be more permissive of large media and technology combinations under the current administration than in prior years.
Separately, media owner Jay Penske has been linked to interest in CNN, although the parties involved have not disclosed formal offers and representatives for Penske and Warner Bros. Discovery did not immediately comment. Sources said Zaslav regarded Penske’s initial interest as insufficiently aggressive.
Wall Street analysts and bankers said the prospect of a bidding contest could reshape options for Warner Bros. Discovery’s planned corporate split and for how strategic buyers value the company’s mix of studios, streaming distribution and linear networks. Any transaction would still be subject to regulatory review and board approval, and timing of formal bids or responses from the company’s board was not known.
Zaslav’s outreach to potential suitors signals an active period for the media company as executives and advisers test the appetite of deep-pocketed tech platforms and strategic buyers for large-scale content assets. Representatives for Warner Bros. Discovery and Skydance declined to comment, and no formal offer from Paramount Skydance has been publicly disclosed.