Warner Bros. Discovery shares spike as CEO shops media group around — setting up bidding war

David Zaslav wants a bidding war for his media conglomerate — and investors say “bring it on!” 

Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery spiked 17% to $18.87 on Friday after The Post reported that CEO Zaslav isn’t waiting around for Paramount Skydance to officially confirm a reported monster bid for the owner of Warner Bros. studios, HBO, TNT and CNN. 

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, as reported, is prepping an all-cash offer of $50 billion or more. 

Last week, however, Zasl­av met with bankers at Goldman Sachs to possibly shop WBD to other media and tech outfits — including Amazon, Apple and Netflix. 

His goal, The Post has learned, is to propel the stock price to $40 a share. If Zaslav can’t get what he’s asking from any suitors, a source said he plans to use his own surging share price to buy more content. 

Reps for WBD and Skydance had no comment. 

Interest in WBD and its properties has been growing, a result of relaxed antitrust enforcement under the Trump administration. 

As The Post reported exclusively Thursday, media maven Jay Penske, who owns among other properties Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone and a stake in Vox Media, is said to have expressed interest in ratings-challenged CNN.


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