While it was nice that Paramount Skydance, Comcast and Netflix all threw in bids on time to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery’s assets, the studio was apparently hoping for a juicer price tag from these suitors. 

Yesterday, CEO David Zaslav urged all of WBD’s first-round bidders to sweeten their offers over the Thanksgiving weekend, setting a new December 1 deadline for upgraded bids. We’re sure the teams involved are thrilled to be working overtime scouring the books again instead of eating turkey with their families in peace, WBD is putting its foot down that the studio’s Batcave-sized portfolio should be worth more to company that wants to use this acquisition to become a media juggernaut that rivals Disney. 

Warner has been sitting on these offers for the past six days, no doubt weighing whether it’s better to sell the studios and streaming businesses separately to Netflix or Comcast, or turn over the whole company to David Ellison’s newly merged Paramount Skydance. 

Paramount 2.0 has already submitted several rejected offers to acquire WBD, and Zaslav could be trying to fatten up this bird before the feast. Earlier reports from unnamed sources indicated that Paramount firmly believes its reported offer of US$23.50 a share (approximately US$58.23 billion) is more than fair, but more sources have emerged to say that US$30 a share (approximately US$74 billion) is where Zaslav wants to land. 

If WBD pursues a sale in the coming weeks, this M&A process could take a year or more to close, as both federal regulators and major shareholders will no doubt want to pick through the deal with a fine-tooth comb before approving anything. (After all, Paramount and Skydance signed their definitive agreement in July 2024, but the FCC didn’t approve the sale until August 2025.)

If Zaslav doesn’t get what he wants and declines to sell…well, that’s OK, too—WBD is still working on separating its successful studios & streaming business and its struggling linear TV division into two publicly traded entities to increase value for shareholders and sharpen its corporate focus. And let’s not forget that WBD’s studio side had a super 2025, thanks to kid-friendly flicks like Superman and A Minecraft Movie.