- Warner Bros. Discovery received second-round bids including a cash offer from Netflix
- Paramount, Comcast, and Netflix improved offers over Thanksgiving weekend for Warner Bros
- Paramount's all-cash bid is backed by Larry Ellison's family and Apollo Global Management
Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. fielded a second round of bids, including a mostly cash offer from Netflix Inc., in an auction that could wrap up in the coming days or weeks, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Bankers for Paramount Skydance Corp., Comcast Corp. and Netflix worked over the long Thanksgiving weekend on improved offers for all or part of Warner Bros., said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing nonpublic information.
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Paramount's all-cash offer, while largely backed by the family of Oracle Corp. co-founder Larry Ellison, includes debt financing from Apollo Global Management Inc. Middle East funds are also contributing, the people said.
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The offers are binding, which means the board is in a position to sign off on a deal quickly if its goals are met, one of the people said. The company hasn't described the latest offers as final, however, and another bid would be considered if the terms are attractive.
Netflix, the streaming industry leader, is working on a bridge loan that totals tens of billions of dollars, one of the people said.
Warner Bros. is said to want $30 a share, and the company's chair emeritus, John Malone, has said that number is “possible.” The stock was up as much as 1.8% to $24.30 on Tuesday, giving the company an equity market value of about $60 billion.
The parent of HBO, CNN and its namesake film studio officially put itself up for sale in October after receiving multiple unsolicited offers for all or part of the company. Paramount, now led by technology scion David Ellison, kicked off the process earlier with three offers for all of the company, including its cable TV networks.
Comcast and Netflix are interested only in the Warner Bros. studios and the HBO Max streaming service. Should one of their bids be accepted, Warner Bros. would continue with plans to spin off its cable channels as Discovery Global. The spinoff could occur by the middle of next year.
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