WHEN: Today, Thursday, December 4, 2025
WHERE: CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street”
Following is the unofficial transcript of breaking news from CNBC’s David Faber on “Squawk on the Street” (M-F, 9AM-11AM ET) today, Thursday, December 4. Following is video on CNBC.com: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2025/12/04/netflix-is-leading-bidder-for-warner-bros-discovery-sources.html.
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
CARL QUINTANILLA: Market continues to absorb reports about this race for Warner Bros. Discovery. David Faber, last week at this desk, said he might be calling in on his week off, and indeed he is. Let’s get to Faber on what we know at this point. Morning David.
DAVID FABER: Good morning guys, yeah, seemed inevitable given how quickly things are moving and what we can share at this point, according to people familiar with the situation, is that Netflix is in the lead in the bidding for Warner Bros. Discovery. Now that does not mean that it ultimately will be victorious, but we are getting down to the very end of this process. Of course, as people know, bids have been made a couple of times by all the parties, and there is an expectation now that Paramount, if it wants to win, is going to have to come back at an even higher price. Now, specific to what that price might be, I can’t tell you, because no one has shared the specifics with me in terms of at least the overall numbers, although it does seem that we’re getting sort of above the mid-20s at this point, most likely, I would say that’s still got to be in the area of speculation, although perhaps informed speculation. What I can tell you is Paramount’s bid is 100% cash, and that Netflix bid is believed to be as much as 85% in cash, the remainder in stock. And if things were to end today, Netflix would appear to be the winner of this of this auction. That said, it’s probably going to go through the weekend, although we may very well see an end to this process early next week. And of course, the question for Paramount will be what can they do to potentially compete with, at least with what seems to be, again, according to people familiar with the situation, a superior bid, at least in the opinion of the board of Warner Bros., so those on the board who are making that decision, along with the company’s CEO David Zaslav. So any number of questions, of course, guys, when it comes to Netflix, we’ve raised them many times. Company has never put itself under the regulatory scrutiny that certainly would be coming with an antitrust investigation of putting together the number one streamer with the number four streamer. How long would the, would the process take? What is the, what is the posture of the Trump administration in terms of Netflix? How long, how much do you actually put in reverse break fee to assuage those concerns, given how long this could stretch for Netflix were to win? And then, of course, the larger question guys, which is, well, what does it really say about Netflix move its business, if it’s willing to have been as competitive as it has thus far. And, you know, we saw the decline yesterday in the stock I think as shareholders beginning to realize that they very well may win this win this bid. But again, it remains to be seen, because there is still a little bit more to go here. But Jim, love to get your take in terms of how you view a potential combination because and again, let me make another point here. This is Netflix’s bid for streaming and studio, you remain, or the stub company that is global networks, remains a public company, which would be valued by the market. We don’t know where, three bucks a share, four bucks a share, perhaps in value. You do also have some tax leakage from a Netflix deal versus the much cleaner, as I pointed out, many times, Paramount deal for the entire company, one price, all cash and conceivably with an easier road on the regulatory front. So that’s where things stand guys.