Netflix has reportedly retained financial advisory firm Moelis & Co to explore a potential bid for Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming and studio business.
The same investment bank advised Skydance Media on its Paramount Global bid, which turned into the successful acquisition of Paramount by Skydance.
Deadline broke the news, saying a source close to events confirmed the streamer is “looking into” the possibility of a move on part of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The news adds another wrinkle to the saga of the past few weeks. Following Warner Bros. Discovery’s rejection of two bids by Paramount for the entire company, Warner Bros. declared it was essentially for sale and had received ‘unsolicited interest’ from multiple partners.
Netflix was seen as one of those possibilities, but Netflix’s co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos made it clear recently on their recent quarterly earnings webcast that they “have no interest in owning legacy media networks”.
A third bid by Paramount was also unsuccessful. Plenty of speculation has flown back and forth about how much of this is basically ‘negotiating in the press’ with WBD chief David Zaslav trying to drive up the company’s stock price. Said stock price has considerably increased since all the talk began.
Today’s news suggests it’s more than just speculation on the streamer’s part. Warner Bros. Discovery is planning to split into two entities next year with Netflix expected to only be looking into the Warner Bros. half which covers the studio and streamer. Paramount’s bids have been for the pre-split full company.
