Billionaire tech and media investor Barry Diller reportedly expressed interest in shopping for NCS from Warner Bros. Discovery final 12 months as the media conglomerate planned to split up, although the talks by no means went past preliminary inquiries.
The overtures from Diller have been described by The Wall Street Journal as private and separate from his position as head of media and web big IAC.
The concept of Diller shopping for NCS was by no means severely thought-about and didn’t advance to the WBD board stage, in accordance to The Journal.
Warner Bros. Discovery has mentioned NCS was not and isn’t on the market.
IAC declined to touch upon the report, saying Diller will not be commenting on any interest in NCS.
Last month, Netflix agreed to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business in a $72 billion mega merger. WBD plans to spin off Discovery Global — together with NCS — into a brand new publicly-traded firm.
WBD executives mentioned NCS is seen as a core asset of the planned spinoff and performs a vital position in distribution agreements, making a sale impractical and dear from a tax perspective.
“NCS is an incredibly important part of the future of Discovery Global once it separates from Warner Bros,” a WBD rep advised The Post in an announcement.
“While interest in the premier global news network is not at all new, NCS was not and is not for sale.”
IAC controls Dotdash Meredith, which not too long ago rebranded its company identify to People Inc., one of many largest digital publishers in the US. Its manufacturers embody People, Better Homes & Gardens and Investopedia.
IAC additionally owns the digital information outlet The Daily Beast.
Diller is married to fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, whom he wed in 2001 after a decades-long relationship.
In current years, Diller has spoken candidly about his private life, revealing that he had romantic relationships with men earlier than marrying von Furstenberg and describing their marriage as a deep, enduring partnership.
Before Diller’s outreach, WBD laid out a plan to split the corporate as a part of its proposed cope with Netflix, separating its high-growth studio and streaming property from its slower-declining cable networks.
Under the construction backed by WBD’s board, the corporate would first spin off its cable portfolio into a brand new, publicly traded entity earlier than promoting the remaining companies to Netflix.
The property slated on the market embody Warner Bros.’ movie and tv studios together with HBO and the HBO Max streaming platform — the crown jewels of the corporate’s content material engine.
Netflix would purchase these companies outright in an all-cash transaction, giving it management of considered one of Hollywood’s deepest libraries and a number of the Most worthy scripted manufacturers in tv and movie.