Exclusive | Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav loving the energy among bidders for his media empire
Warner Bros.Discovery CEO David Zaslav believes there’s “a lot of big [male] energy” among potential bidders for his media empire – enough that he still believes he can sell it for as much as $70 billion, or around $30 a share, On The Money has learned.We are, of course, a family newspaper, hence the parenthetical on the quote.
Plus this could be just wishful thinking.Keep in mind, any number with a “3” in front of it would be a stiff premium to the $23.50 a share offer by Paramount Skydance’s David Ellison.
Paramount, meanwhile, is worth just $56 billion, or around $23 a share.But Zas, as he is known in media circles, is boasting of the interest he’s getting for WBD, with its top ranked studio, No.
3 streaming service, HBO and CNN, not to mention the IP that a buyer would own of shows like “Harry Potter” and “The Sopranos” that can be retrofitted in the age of AI. The “energy” was on full display last Thursday when Zaslav was honored by the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation, receiving its humanitarian award for his work combating antisemitism.Attendees included Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Oprah to name a few. Also spotted were players eying a bid for WBD.
Among them: David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount Skydance along with Makan Delrahim, his top lawyer and former Trump DOJ antitrust chief who will be navigating the DC regulatory shoals. Likewise in attendance: Ted Sarandos of Netflix, which as we first reported, is interested in WBD’s streaming service and its studio as a way not to have to build one of its own.Zas gave an impassioned speech about his family (he met his future wife at shul) and how many of them perished during the holocaust in Poland, just around the time of the Warsaw uprising.He then gave a tribute to CNN reporters for telling “stories” that matter.The sale of WBD infused much of the table chatter before and after the tributes, and the way Zas is talking, the “male energy” is stil...