Starz Placed $25 Billion Bid for All of Warner Bros. Discovery’s Cable Networks

Starz put in a $25 billion bid for all of Warner Bros. Discovery’s cable networks and 20% of its studio and streaming businesses last month, TheWrap has learned, acting as a dark horse contender for an asset most companies bidding on the entertainment company were not interested in.

Warner Bros. Discovery revealed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that a previously undisclosed company — labeled “Company C” in the filing — put in the $25 billion all-cash bid on its Nov. 20 deadline. It also proposed a 90-day exclusivity period, which Netflix, Paramount Skydance and Comcast (labeled “Company A” in the filing) did not.

That company was Starz. While the WBD board considered all the bids on Nov. 21, it found that Company C’s bid was “not actionable at that time” and responded to the top three bidders on Nov. 22.

Puck first reported the news.

The filing also revealed more details about Netflix’s and Paramount’s efforts to purchase some or all of WBD, as the companies publicly advocate for their bids to WBD’s shareholders. Netflix and WBD entered into an exclusive arrangement for the streamer’s $82.7 billion bid for the studio and streaming businesses, while Paramount has mounted a $30-a-share hostile takeover bid for the entire company. WBD on Wednesday rejected Paramount’s latest offer.

A Starz spokesperson declined to comment. Starz CEO Jeff Hirsch previously told TheWrap that he wanted his company to be “additive” to networks he believed were too linear-focused in a digital age.

“There’s a lot of networks out there today that are marooned on the linear side and don’t have technical capabilities to do what we’ve done,” he said in May after Starz completed its spin-off from Lionsgate. “We think we can be very additive to content that is stuck on the linear side to give them a digital future.”

Starz reported a $53 million loss in its third quarter, missing Wall Street expectations, and revenue dropped 8% to $320.9 million. It reported a loss of 130,000 U.S. subscribers for a total of 17.5 million, driven mostly by linear subscribers’ cord-cutting. Linear subscribers also dropped by 24o,000 to 5.17 million while it saw a streaming increase of 110,000 U.S. subscribers for a total of 12.3 million.

Still, Hirsch teased the possibility of venturing into the M&A space during its third-quarter call in November, a week before the company reportedly placed its bid for WBD’s cable networks.

“With a potential for increased consolidation across the media landscape, we believe that we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on potential M&A opportunities,” Hirsch said. “Given our track record of profitability converting our business from linear to digital and our industry-leading tech stack, we are positioned to increase our scale as assets that are strategically valuable to Starz become available.”

The company reportedly found its first target last month when it expressed interest in A+E Global Media, the parent company of networks such as Lifetime and the History Channel.

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