David Ellison, who successfully acquired Paramount Global this summer, is reportedly talking to partners about a bid for Warner Bros Discovery (WBD).
Rumours that Paramount Skydance (as the company is now known) was eyeing a bid for WBD emerged last month.
This is despite WBD’s plans to split into two separate companies next year (Warner Bros, comprising studios and streaming, and Discovery Global, including TV networks and Discovery+).
Now, the New York Post reports Ellison is in talks with private equity firms about joining his move to acquire the Hollywood heavyweight. It says the cost of a deal could be “upwards of $60 billion”.
Apollo Global Management, which had previously launched a bid for Paramount, is reportedly weighing whether to join Ellison.
Meanwhile, there are reports that WBD CEO David Zaslev would prefer for Netflix to bid for the company.
However, speaking at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters played down that possibility, telling the audience: “We come from a deep heritage of being builders rather than buyers. One should have a reasonable amount of skepticism around big media mergers. They don’t have an amazing track record over time.”
