The second round of offers for all or part of Warner Bros. Discovery are in from Paramount Skydance, Netflix and Comcast. And the new, higher offer for all of WBD from David Ellison’s Paramount is backed in part by the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, sources tell Variety.
The dollar amounts of the higher bids submitted Dec. 1 from Paramount Skydance (which wants to buy all of Warner Bros. Discovery) or from Netflix and Comcast (which want only the Warner Bros. studios and streaming business, and not WBD’s linear TV assets) could not be learned. Paramount’s latest all-cash offer is still mostly backed by the Ellison family (that is, Oracle co-founder and billionaire Larry Ellison) and includes financing from RedBird Capital, Apollo Global Management and others.
In addition, the latest Paramount Skydance offer for all of WBD includes funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), Variety confirmed. Bloomberg News previously reported that Paramount’s latest offer included the involvement of unspecified “Middle East funds.”
Sources familiar with the situation said the level of involvement of the three Arab wealth funds with Paramount’s latest offer does not meet the threshold to require approval by CFIUS, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which is the U.S. government’s interagency body that reviews foreign investments in U.S. businesses potential national security risks.
Meanwhile, Netflix’s higher second-round bid for Warner Bros., comprising HBO Max and the WB studios operations, was mostly cash, according to reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal. Comcast also entered a new bid for Warner Bros., Variety confirmed. Netflix has told WBD that if its bid is successful, the streamer would honor Warner Bros.’s deals to distribute films in theaters — despite Netflix’s historical opposition to theatrical releases — and to continue producing TV and movies for non-Netflix partners.
Reps for Paramount Skydance, Netflix and Comcast declined to comment. A Warner Bros. Discovery rep did not respond to a request for comment.
Variety last month reported that Paramount Skydance was assembling a bid for WBD with the backing of the three Middle Eastern wealth funds. But the Paramount nonbinding bid of $24/share for all of Warner Bros. Discovery that Paramount Skydance submitted Nov. 20 did not involve the three Arab wealth funds, sources clarified.
David Ellison had been scheduled to appear at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit on Wednesday, Dec. 3. However, with the bidding process for Warner Bros. Discovery in play, Ellison is now not expected to appear, although that could change, according to a source familiar with the situation.
What’s next? The Warner Bros. Discovery board committee formally vetting the M&A offers will now decide whether to go forward with one of the bidders and engage in a period of exclusive negotiations with that party, or whether to solicit additional proposals. WBD has been aiming to complete the process by the end of 2025.
The M&A review kicked off in earnest last month, when Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it had received in-bound acquisition interest from multiple parties. The company said it will consider proposals in which the Warner Bros. business (HBO Max and studios) is sold separately from Discovery Global, the TV-centric company, which aligns with Warner Bros. Discovery’s already-underway plan to split into two companies by April 2026.
Paramount Skydance chairman and CEO David Ellison previously submitted three bids for WBD but the Warner Bros. Discovery board rejected his previous highest offer of $23.50/share, comprising 80% cash and 20% stock. In his previous bids, Ellison had proposed offering WBD chief David Zaslav a co-chairman and co-CEO role in a merged Paramount Skydance-WBD; it’s not known if that’s still on the table in Paramount’s latest offer.
It’s possible the board of Warner Bros. Discovery will decide to reject the M&A offers and stick to the company’s previous plan of splitting itself into two pieces: Warner Bros., led by Zaslav as CEO; and Discovery Global, headed by current CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels.