The race for who will be Warner Bros. Discovery's new owner continues. Paramount remains the most likely candidate, but more recently, Netflix appeared to be joining the fray as well. In October, it was reported that the streamer had secured the services of investment bank Moelis & Co. to come up with an offer for the film studio. Furthermore, per the report, Netflix was also given access to financial information to allow it to make an informed bid. The arrival of a competitor seemed to up the stakes of WBD's sale, particularly given the heavy interest Paramount has shown.
However, surprisingly enough, it could be the case that not all is what it seems with Netflix throwing its hat in the ring for Warner Bros. Discovery. Variety recently published a report on Paramount, which included an interesting tidbit about the streaming giant. According to the outlet, while Netflix is mulling over an offer for WBD, "some industry sources believe the streamer is mostly trying to drive up the price Paramount Skydance will need to pay."
Why Netflix would—reportedly—mainly want to drive up the cost of Warner Bros. for Paramount is unknown. Aside from that, though a Netflix spokesperson denied the claim, Variety heard that, out of all of Paramount's business competitors, Netflix was the most surprised by the arrival of CEO David Ellison into the entertainment scene, given his vast resources.
In the past, Netflix heads have denied there being interest in purchasing Warner Bros. During an after-market analyst call, for example, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos stated—without directly addressing the WBD. sale—that the streamer was more interested in organic growth rather than mergers and acquisitions (via The Hollywood Reporter):
"When it comes to M&A [mergers and acquisitions] opportunities, we look at them, and we look at all of them, and we apply the same framework and lens that we look at when we look to invest. Is it a big opportunity? Is there additional value in ownership? [...] We're predominantly focused on growing organically, investing aggressively and responsibly into the growth and returning access cash flow to shareholders."
Earlier in October, at the Bloomberg Screentime conference (via THR), Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters was asked about Netflix's reported interest in buying Warner Bros. Discovery:
"We come from a deep heritage of being builders rather than buyers. I also think that one should have a reasonable amount of skepticism around big media mergers, they don't have an amazing track record over the history of time. I would say it's our responsibility to evaluate all our options. Our job is to figure out what's the best way to grow our business? And we have to think really carefully, how do we invest our capital, our time and our attention, and if that’s the best way to do it, great, and if it's not, then we should do something else."
Given the reported information by Variety, Netflix putting itself forward as a potential buyer for WBD is a puzzling move. However, with no more information available, it's not possible to make an educated guess about the potential reasons behind such a purported move.