Warner Bros. Discovery is officially up for sale, and the company is soliciting bids for the entire company or various parts of its assets. Paramount Skydance has already offered $24 a share for the entire company, but that offer has so far been rejected by the media giant.
CEO David Zaslav is very motivated to close the deal because of the financial bonuses that come with executing a sale. Bloomberg reported that he told senior executives that Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Comcast have expressed interest in acquiring Warner Bros.’ vast library of TV shows and movies.
It’s very likely that Apple’s name is simply being promoted to increase the bid. It’s unclear how serious the company is about acquiring major media companies.
To date, Apple’s biggest acquisition was Beats Electronics, which it made back in 2013 for $3 billion. Acquiring Warner Bros., even if broken up in parts, would cost tens of billions of dollars and involve a great deal of effort and cultural deterioration and consolidation.
In a recent podcast interview, Eddie Cue said that Apple isn’t actively pursuing deals to enhance its Apple TV service, and that the company generally prefers to build rather than buy, but wouldn’t rule anything out.
Currently, Apple TV is sold as an all-original streaming service, but we have to assume that Apple will consider adding premium catalog content once it becomes available at an affordable price.
For example, Apple would likely be interested if the option were available to purchase HBO’s intellectual property on its own. Apple seriously inquired about acquiring HBO from AT&T Time Warner about a decade ago, but AT&T also wanted to offload HBO as well as its cable network. This is an issue Apple wasn’t interested in then, and probably isn’t interested in now.
However, Warner Bros. Discovery’s current financial situation is even more dire, and it is willing to accept offers to split the parts. Whether that means Apple can actually get its hands on HBO’s treasure at a reasonable price is another step entirely.
For now, negotiations are at an early stage. Interested parties, including Apple, will enter into nondisclosure agreements with Warner Bros. Discovery that will allow them to view sensitive financial data and learn more about the business. You can then choose whether to submit an offer or not.
