In this extra edition of The Screen Podcast, we go in-depth on the Warner Bros sale with M&A expert Kim Chua, who sheds light on the views of shareholders and potential regulatory hurdles.

Watch above on video, or listen to below.

 Chua, a partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants, was speaking to Screen’s Americas editor Jeremy Kay.

They discuss the different motivations behind the rival bids from Netflix and Paramount Skydance, and why many shareholders might see the Netflix bid as “more risky”, according to Chua.

“Two-thirds, I’d estimate of the shareholders in Warner Bros Discovery are in big institutional funds… [which] also have investments in and stock in Netflix. So they’ll be looking at the risk and reward across the entire portfolio, what value can they actually get from the deal, but also the certainty of getting that value.”

“So with Paramount, the value is certain because it’s a fixed amount of cash, which they can then choose to reinvest as they please. Netflix is more complicated because there is some cash, there’s some Netflix shares, there’s actually the residual value of the cable assets that are left behind that they will, as shareholders, still have a stake.”

They also discuss the different ways EU and UK regulators could approach the deals (“the EU is going to look at is streaming market power”, says Chua), and the complicated history of huge media mergers.

The Screen Podcast is produced and hosted by Wendy Mitchell and edited by Ellie Calnan. New episodes every other Thursday.

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