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Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav met with Comcast executives last week as a closely watched Hollywood bidding war for the film and television giant heats up.
Zaslav, who last month publicly hung a for-sale sign on an empire that includes the historic Warner Bros. studio, HBO, and CNN, met with Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, people familiar with the matter said. Specific details of conversations remain unclear, but the meeting suggests that Comcast feels that there is still a path forward for a deal, in spite of concerns — aired in the press — about the likelihood of regulatory troubles in the US.
Paramount has been bidding since October for WBD, a transaction that would elevate David Ellison’s nascent media empire into a Hollywood force that could not be easily ignored by tech competitors and Wall Street. It would fuse Paramount’s film and streaming assets with the storied Warner Bros. content library and a streaming titan in HBO. Comcast’s Mike Cavanagh, who will become co-CEO with Roberts in January, told investors on last quarter’s earnings call that the bar is high for major M&A but that the company would have more room to maneuver once it completes the spinoff of most of its cable channels into a new company early next year.
Reuters reported Thursday that Comcast had hired bankers from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to sort through a potential bid for some of WBD’s assets.
Spokespeople for WBD and Comcast declined to comment.
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Comcast is seen as a longer-shot buyer. It’s interested in only pieces of WBD, rather than the entire company, and would need approval from President Donald Trump, a frequent critic of both Comcast’s journalism and its diversity policies.
Comcast has tried to improve its image on the right. It has donated to Trump’s forthcoming White House ballroom and rebranded MSNBC as MS NOW, a move that puts some distance between the liberal cable network and the more down-the-middle NBC News brand.
Paramount has close ties to the White House through Ellison’s father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison. But that same closeness to Trump could prove a disadvantage in Europe, where antitrust regulators hold a dim view of American technology giants and are keenly focused on media consolidation. Warner possesses valuable European sports rights that would require government approvals to sell.