The Warner Bros. Discovery board of directors turned up the volume of the discussion about their company’s potential sale by releasing an official statement confirming that an official process has begun to explore the sale. The statement confirmed that Paramount Skydance, led by David Ellison, has submitted multiple offers that were now under “strategic review” by WBD’s board of directors.
A prime consideration is whether to sell the entire company as it exists today or first to complete the ongoing process of dividing the company into two independent entities and then consider separate offers for either or both of these units. The Warner Bros. statement confirmed having received “unsolicited interest” from multiple parties, and its release may have been intended to kick off a bidding war for the 102-year-old media giant.
Many in Hollywood reacted with grief. All the reported bidders for Warner Bros. are other studios, including Comcast Universal, Netflix, Paramount, Skydance, and Amazon. If any of these go forward, the studio division at Warner Bros. would be combined with another existing studio.
Many are concerned that this would result in a similar fate to Disney’s 2019 acquisition of 20th Century Fox. Six years later, the theatrical output from the 20th Century Studios division within Disney has declined dramatically. Any further reduction in the number of studios and output of new films would be a negative for theatres.
With reports throughout the week of Warner Bros. rejecting multiple offers from Paramount, the Sand Kydance, it now seems possible that Warner Bros. will go the route of splitting the company in two and then put each part up for sale. While this may buy some time for the studio to continue to operate as it does today, it could well be that its existence as a stand-alone studio is numbered.
