Tom Rogers, Sr. Advisor to Versant Media, joins 'Fast Money' to weigh in on the Netflix bid for Warner Bros.

Hollywood

Media mogul Tom Rogers commented on the ongoing bidding war between Netflix and Paramount for Warner Bros. Discovery, noting that Netflix's aggressive offer was unexpected given its previous stance on acquisitions. Rogers explained that Netflix stands to gain significantly from Warner's strong content portfolio and that the company could better monetize these assets in the streaming era.

Rogers also pointed out that Netflix's bid, which includes a substantial cash component, some Netflix stock, and a record $5.8 billion breakup fee, was superior to Paramount's offer. He emphasized that Warner likely favored Netflix due to its stronger financial position, making it a more reliable partner if the media industry faces economic challenges.

Netflix-Paramount bidding war is not over, says media mogul Tom Rogers

For more on all of this, CNBC contributor and founder Tom Rogers joins us now. He's also senior advisor to Versant Media, our soon-to-be parent company. Tom, great to see you again. Great to be here, Melissa. Thanks. There is so much to get into here. But first of all, what do you think Netflix is thinking with this very aggressive offer? And what sort of mix of offense and defense do you think this is for Netflix to make such a big, bold bid? Well, there's been very little that has surprised me about Netflix's growth plans over the years. This one did surprise me. I figured they'd be in there, take a look. But they said there aren't any must-haves out there. They're bidding as if this is a must-have. And while I don't believe it is a must-have for them, they certainly get a lot out of it. The Warner Studios, both movie and TV, are hitting on all cylinders right now. And they can certainly monetize those better than anybody in the streaming era. HBO stands for quality. Certainly a combined Netflix-HBO offering is going to give them even more substantial consumer power relative to engagement and viewing engagement, which is the key metric that they believe they should be measured on these days. So they get a lot out of it. And of course, on the defense side, whether this transaction goes through or not, keeping it out of the hands of competitors permanently or some period of time certainly is an effective strategy as well. If you were, you know, on the WBD board or your WBD shareholder, Tom, which way would you go? Which bid is superior in your view, and why? Well, I think they got — they took this bid because it was the highest bid. It is a cash offer with a little bit of Netflix stock, which obviously somebody like me who's been a Netflix bull believes is valuable currency, plus the $3 to $4 that they would attribute to the cable networks when those are spun off to shareholders puts this a bit over $30 to share as it is, which if it's true that Paramount bid $30 cash would make the bid they took the superior bid. Moreover, they got one hell of a breakup fee. This may be the biggest breakup fee in history at $5.8 billion. I thought Paramount's move of putting forward a $5 billion breakup fee was going to be the head-turner that might have turned it in Paramount's direction, but Netflix coming up with a bigger breakup fee, Warner obviously looked at that and probably also looked at the fact that Netflix is a very sound company financially, Paramount less so. So if things get rocky over the next year and a half in the economy and something untoward happens in the media industry, Netflix is probably better able to weather it than Paramount is. Thanks for watching. If you liked this video, click the thumbs-up and subsctribe. Further details and more at www.vintrospektiv.de – and feel free to support me on Patreon, see the video description.

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