The bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is entering the next round: Paramount Skydance, Netflix and Comcast have submitted their revised offers. According to information from Variety the new, increased overall offer from Paramount Skydance will also be co-financed for the first time by three large sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

Paramount Skydance - under the leadership of David Ellison and largely supported by the Ellison family around Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison - continues to strive for the complete takeover of Warner Bros Discovery. In addition to capital from RedBird and Apollo, money from the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) is now also to flow into the offer. However, the investment remains within a framework that does not require a review by the US investment committee CFIUS.

While Paramount Skydance is vying for the entire company, Netflix and Comcast are focussing on the studio and streaming business (HBO Max and Warner Bros. Studios), but not on the group's linear TV channels. According to media reports, Netflix is said to have submitted a largely cash-based offer - and surprisingly signalled that it would respect Warner Bros.' existing cinema exploitation models, although the streaming giant has so far been rather critical of cinema. The collaboration with external production partners is also to be continued.

There are no official statements from the companies involved. What is clear, however, is that the competition is heating up. Ellison's participation in the New York Times DealBook Summit was cancelled at short notice - apparently so as not to jeopardise the ongoing bidding process.

The ball is now in the court of Warner Bros. Discovery's review committee. The committee must decide whether to enter into exclusive negotiations with one of the interested parties or whether to obtain further offers. The Group is aiming to finalise the entire M&A process by the end of 2025.

At the same time, Warner Bros. Discovery is continuing to pursue its previously announced plan to separate the Group into two independent companies by April 2026 at the latest: Warner Bros. (with Studios and HBO Max) under the direction of David Zaslav and Discovery Globalwhich would be TV business-orientated and managed by CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels. If none of the current offers are convincing, this split could once again become the favoured strategy.