MW Netflix and Paramount are now the favorites to buy Warner Bros., but investors don't like it

By Lukas I. Alpert

Share prices for both suitors are down over 5% as details emerge of cash bids for the owner of HBO and CNN

Much of the interest in Warner Bros. Discovery has been for its studio and streaming businesses, and less for its linear television divisions.

With their latest buyout bids, Netflix and Paramount Skydance are now among the likely winners in the fight to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, but investors are treating them as the losers on Wednesday, with the share prices for both suitors down more than 5%.

Shares of Netflix $(NFLX)$ fell to a nearly eight-month low after it was reported that the company had made an all-cash bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery's (WBD) studio and streaming businesses as a second-round bid deadline passed on Monday.

Meanwhile, Paramount Skydance shares $(PSKY)$ fell on word of that company's all-cash bid, with backing from Apollo Global Management $(APO)$ and Middle Eastern investors, for the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery, including its linear television channels like CNN and HBO.

Conversely, Comcast $(CMCSA)$ - which had reportedly made an offer that included cash and stock - saw its shares rise more than 1%, while Warner Bros. Discovery's stock was up nearly 1%.

Comcast's offer, given its inclusion of a stock swap, is viewed as perhaps the least likely to succeed, analysts have said.

It was not clear how much any of the bidders was offering, but earlier bids from Paramount that were rejected by Warner Bros. Discovery had valued the company as high as $60 billion.

Paramount had long been viewed as the front-runner because of its interest in acquiring all of Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount has also been considered to have a leg up given the closeness of its owners - Chief Executive David Ellison and his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who is one of the richest people in the world - to the Trump administration, which would need to sign off on expected regulatory hurdles.

But the perceived strength of Netflix's offer has raised the odds of it winning the bidding in the eyes of media observers and investors.

Paramount Skydance kicked off the bidding process in September by making an unsolicited offer for Warner Bros. Discovery. The approach came shortly after the Ellisons closed a deal to acquire Paramount after a drawn-out effort to gain regulatory approval from Trump's FCC.

Warner Bros. Discovery had already announced plans to spin off its linear television business from its streaming and studio arms by next year, but Paramount's repeated offers led the Warner Bros. board to formally put the company up for sale in October.

That led to additional bids from Netflix and Comcast.

The real value in the deal comes from Warner Bros.'s studio, its library and its streaming business, which ranks fourth overall with 128 million subscribers worldwide.

An acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery is considered more of a must-have for Paramount than for its competitors in the bidding, analysts have said, given the need to bolster its streaming service, Paramount+, which has 79.1 million subscribers globally.

Netflix, which is by far the streaming leader with over 300 million subscribers, would gladly add Warner Bros.' studio, library and streaming business, but it has little interest in the linear television properties.

Comcast, which owns NBC and Universal studios and is close to completing a spinoff of much of its own linear television business into a new company called Versant, could benefit from the addition of Warner Bros.' studio and its streaming customers.

All variations of any transaction would require some level of regulatory approval, however, which observers have said gives Paramount an advantage. Larry Ellison is a backer of President Donald Trump and David Ellison has made several changes to CBS, which is owned by Paramount, that have been viewed favorably by the Trump administration.

Earlier this year, Paramount agreed to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Trump for $16 million that many legal experts considered to be baseless. Soon after the settlement was reached, the Federal Communications Commission signed off on the deal with Skydance Media.

-Lukas I. Alpert

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December 03, 2025 15:07 ET (20:07 GMT)

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