Paramount Skydance hasn’t made formal bid for Warner Bros., NYP reports

Paramount Skydance (PSKY) hasn’t yet made a formal offer for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), with concerns a buyout offer could be used by Warner CEO David Zaslav to shop the company to other potential suitors, Charles Gasparino writes for The New York Post’s “On the Money.” Sources close to Skydance tell The Post that the Ellisons and their partners at Redbird Capital are worried about how best to approach Zaslav, as they are “keenly aware” he wants a bidding war, and do not want to do a hostile bid for Warner. Skydance could possibly reach out to John Malone to “plead their case” to Zaslav, but it is unclear whether Malone would or would attempt to persuade Zaslav to accept Ellison’s offer because Malone, a major shareholder of Warner Bros. through Liberty Media (LMCA), benefits from a bidding war, Gasparino says. People with knowledge of the matter say that the official approach to Zaslav could come either later this week or much farther down the road.