Yahoo News NBCUniversal Plus Warner Bros. Discovery? Comcast CEO Fends Off Chatter
Brian Roberts poured water on speculation that his media company will merge with Warner Bros. Discovery.
As mergers and acquisitions talk continues to dominate the media sector, Comcast CEO and chairman Brian Roberts has discounted deal speculation surrounding NBCUniversal.
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“While there may be speculation what we could do next, I’d like you to hear it directly from me. I love the company we have. So the bar continues to be even higher for us to do anything other than the plan you heard today,” Roberts told financial analysts during a morning call after Comcast announced its fourth quarter earnings.
Speculation over a potential NBCUniversal-Paramount Global merger was raised when Comcast unveiled an agreement to form the SkyShowtime joint venture with Paramount in more than 20 European markets to roll out a joint streaming service.
More recently, M&A chatter has turned to Comcast looking to buy Warner Bros. Discovery and merge it with Universal Studios. And Paramount Global, controlled by mogul Shari Redstone and run by CEO Bob Bakish, is also speculated to be seeking buyers for all or parts of its assets.
Roberts during the analyst call paid tribute to Comcast for having unique assets, without urging that the company needed more scale or partners.
“When you put it all together, we have a great team that’s always most important to me. And we’re making the right adjustments to our businesses to position us to win, grow and continue to return capital to shareholders,” Roberts added.
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