Exclusive | Comcast CEO Brian Roberts mulling another bid Warner Bros. Discovery: sources

For those wagering against Comcast in the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery, the cable giant’s CEO Brian Roberts is signaling that he’ll see their bets – and that he might raise them, too.

People with direct data say that Roberts – scrambling to reinvigorate Comcast’s shrinking empire – plans to affix a second round of bidding next week for WBD, which owns the No. 1 Hollywood studio, the No. 3 streamer in HBO Max plus cable properties like HBO and CNN. 

Roberts is even weighing a potential offer that might catapult him ahead of his rivals – a bid that might presumably attain a valuation of $27 or $28 a share, according to the sources. And that’s just for its studio and streaming companies.  

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, second from proper, is said to be planning to affix a second round of bidding for Warner Bros, Discovery, difficult Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, second from left.

To be sure, Roberts and his team haven’t, as of press time, come up with a final quantity, these people say. But in the event that they bid to those ranges, it will be a respectable premium to the roughly $25 a share already positioned by Paramount Skydance for the entire company – an offer price about $60 billion. It would also seemingly surpass the first-round bid made by Netflix, which is also vying for the studio and streaming items of WBD, according to people with data of the matter.

One factor is for certain: Roberts is aware of he must play hardball to win, these sources say. He’s making a run at WBD despite excessive reluctance from the Trump administration to approve something Roberts touches given his long stewardship of the Trump-hating cable channel MS NOW. 

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Comcast CEO Brian Roberts is aware of he must play hardball to win, sources told On The Money. Bloomberg by way of Getty Images

Plus, he’s said to consider he has no selection given Comcast’s challenges: a laggard streaming service in Peacock, a second-place network in NBC, and a smallish studio on top of heaps of debt as he spins off MS NOW and other cable channels into a new company. He has cable pipes however that’s seen as a declining business. 

Rich Greenfield, the widely adopted “ax” of media analysts at LightShed Partners, believes Comcast must fight laborious for WBD or face being run over by larger media and tech gamers. “Can you imagine what happens if Comcast loses, what happens to Peacock?” he tells On The Money. “They will be the only ones on the dance floor with no obvious partner.”

The pondering is that with a main bid Roberts would possibly be capable of get the greenlight from the WBD board for a bid and then efficiently challenge in federal court docket any rebuttal from the Trump DOJ antitrust division, arguing that in the age of a number of streaming providers, content being provided on YouTube and social media, no vital antitrust points exist along with his offer.

Roberts – scrambling to reinvigorate Comcast’s shrinking empire – plans to affix a second round of bidding next week for WBD, which owns the No. 1 Hollywood studio and the No. 3 streamer in HBO Max. Getty Images

A Comcast spokesman declined to remark.

As The Post has reported, Netflix has launched its own charm offensive to show that its bid faces less regulatory scrutiny. Some members of the WBD board are warming to the Netflix offer after listening to arguments from Netflix legal employees that regular antitrust issues wouldn’t apply to the mixture of its No. 1 streamer in the world, with WBD’s No. 3.

David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance has already made an offer price about $60 billion. AFP by way of Getty Images

That’s because of one thing often called “category ambiguity.” It’s unattainable to nook the streaming market via such mixtures because of the attain of YouTube and social media. The Netflix bid permits WBD to spin off its cable property as was beforehand deliberate, which is seen as another constructive for its offer.

Reps for Netflix and DOJ antitrust had no instant remark.

One downside for WBD in valuing the bids is that Comcast only needs its streaming service and studio; thus, its total worth is derived from how a lot he’s offering for those two models so it’s not fairly an apple-to-apple comparability with the money being put up by Paramount Skydance. Roberts will also must borrow or search equity companions to finance his offer given Comcast’s comparatively modest stability sheet. 

The WBD board and CEO David Zaslav also would possibly resolve they don’t need to roll the cube with its bid for chunks of the company when it might merely promote all the things to Paramount Skydance. AFP by way of Getty Images

Another complicating issue is political opposition from Trump, who’s said to be adamantly opposed to creating Comcast stronger. Roberts might read the room and alter his thoughts in the coming days as the second-round bidding deadline of Dec. 1 approaches, people close to him inform me. 

That’s because to remain the course he should play the long game, and persuade the WBD board to do the same via a two-year course of that consists of a prolonged probe by the Trump-appointed DOJ antitrust chief Gale Slater, and then lawsuit in federal court docket the place a win isn’t a given. 

The WBD board and CEO David Zaslav also would possibly resolve they don’t need to roll the cube with its bid for chunks of the company when it might merely promote all the things to Paramount Skydance, run by David Ellison and his father, the Trump supporting mega-billionaire Larry Ellison. 

They will obtain a far simpler trip via the regulatory equipment with Slater of their effort to purchase the complete company, according to media executives with direct data of the company’s pondering.

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