Netflix is exploring a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery studio and streaming business, retaining a financial advisor and gaining access to financial information, according to a Reuters report. The streaming service had hired Moelis & Co., the bank that advised Skydance Media through its successful bid for Paramount to evaluate a prospective offer.
Owning Warner Bros. studio business would give Netflix control over some of the most successful franchises including Harry Potter and DC comics. Warner Bros. studios also produced some of Netflix’s hits, including original series like “Running Point,” “You” and “Maid.”
HBO and its companion streaming service would add more prestige dramas, and subscribers.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos told investors last week that while the company is traditionally “more builders than buyers,” it does evaluate acquisitions based on criteria such as the size of the opportunity and whether it would strengthen the company’s entertainment offerings.
READ: Warner Bros rejects Paramount Skydance’s takeover offer (
Sarandos also mentioned the company would not be interested in acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery’s cable television networks, which include CNN, TNT, Food Network and Animal Planet. “We’ve been very clear in the past that we have no interest in owning legacy media networks,” Sarandos said in the company’s third-quarter investor video. “There is no change there.”
Warner Bros. previously rejected a takeover offer from Paramount Skydance. The company rejected the offer of around $20 per share as it was regarded as “too low.”
Since then Paramount has been exploring several paths in its bid for Warner Bros., including increasing its offer, appealing directly to shareholders or securing extra support from a financial partner. The company has been in the talks with alternative asset manager Apollo Global Management about backing its bid.
READ: Netflix aims for $1 trillion valuation by 2030 (
Comcast is also reportedly planning to bid for Warner Bros Discovery, although, like Netflix, seemingly just for the studios and/or streaming side of the house. Mike Cavanagh, Comcast co-CEO, told analysts during Comcast’s Q3 earnings call Thursday morning that “the bar is high” for the company to consider a major merger or acquisition. However, he did not rule anything out. He suggested that Comcast’s ability to secure federal approval for any transaction would improve once the spinoff of its linear cable channels (other than Bravo) into Versant is completed later this year.
Cavanagh said that “what we’d be looking for and what we’re going to look like post-Versant spin, I think more things are viable than maybe some of the public commentary that’s out there.”
Box Office hits for Warner Bros. Studio in 2025 include James Gunn’s “Superman,” “A Minecraft Movie,” Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan’s “Sinners,” “Final Destination Bloodlines,” Brad Pitt’s “F1: The Movie,” and “Weapons.” In 2024, the studios segment’s highlights were “Dune: Part Two,” “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice” and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” on the film side.