Netflix seems primed to pounce on NBCUniversal as the enlarged Skydance resets the the industry's balance of power
\n\nDavid Ellison has knocked out Warner Bros. Discovery, merging it with Paramount into the new Skydance Corp. Now the chatter around town is about the industry’s next megamerger.
\n\nIn the current landscape, only one media company of considerable size could be ripe for a takeover: NBCUniversal. Following its planned spinoff from Comcast in mid-2027, NBCU could fetch $60 billion from a motivated buyer, research firm Morningstar estimates. As for who that acquirer could be, industry sources uniformly point to Netflix as the leading candidate.
\n\nNetflix chief Ted Sarandos, after walking away from the streamer’s effort to acquire Warner Bros. and HBO, said his key takeaway was that “we really built our M&A muscle.” He hasn’t tipped his hand about what Netflix might pursue next, saying in April only that “we invest in the business both organically and opportunistically.”
\n\nMeanwhile, Comcast execs, in announcing the NBCU spinoff plans in June, said they weren’t splitting up the media company to ready it for a sale. But when pressed about the possibility of M&A after the separation, Comcast co-CEO Mike Cavanagh, who’s set to become…
Original source: https://variety.com/