Yet another twist has come our way regarding the impending sale of Warner Bros. Discovery. As one of the biggest companies in entertainment, WBD has attracted several powerful buyers to submit bids for its assets. On November 20, the first round of offers was held for interested parties, which include Netflix, Paramount Skydance and Comcast. Said bids were non-binding. Following that, Warner Bros. requested a second round of offers, expected to be higher than the ones initially submitted.
A new deadline of December 1 was given for studios to provide their latest offers. It's now come to light that this second round involved a particularly important bid—from previously unlikely buyer Netflix. According to Bloomberg, the streaming giant submitted a massive, mostly cash, offer for the studio. Per sources, Netflix is working on a bridge loan for the bid, which is said to be in "the tens of billions of dollars."
These bids are particularly important for the process, given that they—unlike the ones from the previous round—are binding, which, as Bloomberg explained, allows the board of directors to approve a deal should it so desired to. It's worth noting, though, that these second offers are not final, and more could be coming the company's way if the terms are considered "attractive" enough.
It's also said that Comcast, Paramount and Netflix bankers worked through the Thanksgiving weekend to prepare their bids. The outlet further stated the auction process is expected to close fairly soon—within the coming days or weeks. The amount offered by Netflix makes sense, given that Paramount was said to have offered to buy WBD for $60 billion.
Overall, Netflix's offer comes as a surprise. Variety had recently speculated the streaming giant was likely to make an all-stock offer for WBD. The fact that it has put such a massive cash bid appears to show a heavier interest in WBD than it had previously shown. While previously reported to have mainly been involved in the bidding to drive up the price for Paramount Skydance, the streaming giant now appears to be one of the frontrunners to merge with the studio.
With this latest news, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for Netflix to end up the new owner of Warner Bros. Discovery. The prospect of a merger between the streaming giant and WBD has been particularly intimidating for the industry, given Netflix's open preference of streaming over theatrical distribution. Yet, the company is said to be willing to adapt. In November, Bloomberg published a report regarding Netflix's intentions for the studio.
The outlet stated that Netflix plans to continue releasing films theatrically should it merge with WBD, and will honor any theatrical deals currently in place. It's also been said that Netflix has been slowly warming up to the idea of focusing more on theatrical releases. Though this appears to position Netflix as the likeliest candidate to purchase the company, it's still left to see what the other competitors have put forward.
Paramount, for example, has been quite aggressive. After submitting three increasing offers for the studio, it's said the David Ellison-led company was considering a hostile bid, bypassing the WBD board of directors and going straight to the shareholders to have their offer approved. Given the reported magnitude of Netflix's bid, it will be interesting to see how the other companies in the race respond.
Much like Netflix, Comcast is said to be mainly seeking Warner Bros. Discovery studio assets, which would lead the company to split into two entities—Warner Bros. and Discovery Global. Paramount Skydance, on the other hand, is said to want WBD as a whole. Per Bloomberg, should Comcast or Netflix become the new owners of the company, WBD would move forward with the split in 2026, as it announced earlier in 2025.