Exclusive: Comcast hires bankers to explore bid for Warner Bros Discovery

By Dawn Chmielewski, Amy-Jo Crowley, Dawn Kopecki and Milana Vinn

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Comcast (CMCSA) has retained fiscal advisors and gained entree ​to fiscal accusation arsenic it explores a bid for Warner Bros Discovery’s (WBD) workplace ‌and streaming businesses, according to 4 sources acquainted with the matter.

NBCUniversal’s genitor institution has hired Goldman Sachs ‌and Morgan Stanley to measure a prospective offer, 2 of the sources said. Comcast besides has been granted entree to the information room, which contains the fiscal accusation it would request to marque a bid, according to 2 of the sources acquainted with the ⁠matter.

Spokespeople for Comcast, Warner ‌Bros Discovery, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

Comcast President Mike Cavanagh antecedently told investors that the institution is evaluating media assets ‍that “would beryllium complementary to our existing business.” He besides appeared to disregard analysts who are skeptical of Comcast winning regulatory approval, saying “more things are viable than possibly immoderate ​of the nationalist commentary that’s retired there.”

Industry observers person questioned Comcast’s ‌ability to implicit a merger, fixed U.S. President Donald Trump’s societal media criticisms of the company’s president and CEO, Brian Roberts.

Warner Bros Discovery declined to reply questions related to a imaginable merchantability during the company’s third-quarter capitalist telephone Thursday. However, CEO David Zaslav touted the spot of its movie and tv ⁠studios, and predicted the HBO Max streaming work ​would scope 150 cardinal subscribers by the extremity of ​the year.

The media institution began evaluating its options aft receiving a trio of unsolicited offers from Paramount Skydance (PSKY) to get the full company, ‍two of the sources ⁠said.

Netflix (NFLX) has hired Moelis & Co, the concern slope that advised Skydance Media connected its palmy bid for Paramount Global, to measure a prospective ⁠offer for Warner Bros Discovery's workplace and streaming businesses, Reuters exclusively reported.

(Reporting by Dawn ‌Chmielewski, Dawn Kopecki and Milana Vinn successful New York, Amy-Jo ‌Crowley successful London, editing by Aurora Ellis)