The suitors to acquire Warner Bros. showed themselves this week, with bids submitted by Paramount/Skydance, Netflix, and Comcast by the November 20th deadline that the company’s board of directors had set. This is the latest development in the sale of the studio, which until recently had seemed likely to go to Paramount/Skydance. Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav held out to see if other offers would emerge, and now Netflix and Comcast have joined the fray.
For Netflix, home to the world’s largest streaming platform and by most measures the leading entertainment company in Hollywood, the addition of Warner Bros. would allow it to have one of the few assets that it does not hold, a deep and proven catalog of Intellectual Property. Netflix is not known for franchise properties, and its attempts to create them have been inconsistent at best.
They’ve stumbled with big-budget flops in that direction, such as THE ELECTRIC STATE and REBEL MOON. A Warner Bros. acquisition would give Netflix ownership of beloved franchises, including Harry Potter, DC Comics, and The Lord of the Rings, among many others. For Comcast, interest is driven by a desire to improve its standing in streaming, which lags its competitors significantly. NBCUniversal’s Peacock is a weak second fiddle to Warner Bros.’ HBO Max, and the two services combined would begin to match other, more successful services such as Netflix, Disney+/Hulu, Apple TV+, and Amazon Prime.
While late-breaking offers from Netflix and Comcast have added a new wrinkle in the Warner Bros. sale process, they may not change its outcome. Many still believe that Paramount/Skydance will wind up as the victor in this contest, based on their willingness to assimilate the entire scope of their rival studio’s operations, whereas Netflix and Comcast are primarily interested in WB’s studio and streaming businesses.
In addition, Paramount/Skydance CEO David Ellison would seem to have stronger ties to the Trump administration, with his father Larry Ellison being a long-time confidant and friend to Donald Trump. Any acquisition will be reviewed by the Federal Trade Commission, and Paramount/Skydance could have a smoother path to approval than its rivals. That said, the Ellisons may be forced to spend more to win the bidding war that has developed.
