In this articleWBDCMCSAFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNTBrian Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast, attends the annual Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho on July 9th, 2025. David A. Grogan | CNBCComcast clued investors into its potential M&A aspirations on Thursday. In short, executives think a deal could get done, despite recent naysaying.Comcast is among the interested parties in a potential deal for Warner Bros. Discovery. WBD, the owner of TNT Sports, CNN, HBO, Warner Bros. studio and other media assets, officially put itself up for sale after “receiving interest from multiple parties,” WBD CEO David Zaslav said in a statement last week. Several pundits and analysts have posited that Comcast has little to no chance to do a deal from a regulatory perspective, given President Donald Trump’s pointed words for Comcast CEO and controlling shareholder Brian Roberts. Others say the path forward may not be doomed.On Thursday, alongside the company’s third-quarter earnings report, soon-to-be co-CEO Mike Cavanagh shed some light on how executives view the situation (without specifically naming Warner Bros. Discovery as a potential tie-up).”I think more things are viable than maybe some of the public commentary that’s out there,” said Cavanagh on Thursday.Trump in April called Comcast and Roberts “a disgrace to the integrity of Broadcasting” in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social. Trump has also called Roberts a “lowlife” and has referred to Comcast as “Concast.”Some equity research analysts have predicted that the Trump administration would block a Comcast acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. WBD is still moving toward a planned separation into two publicly traded entities while it expands its strategic review.Paramount is trying to buy the whole company, before it could split, and WBD has thus far rejected three separate offers from the David Ellison-run company.”It is almost certain that the Trump DOJ would not allow CMSCA to buy WBD and the result would be decided in court,” New Street Research analyst Blair Levin wrote in a note to clients, citing Trump’s public comments about Roberts.”We along with our cable colleagues believe [Comcast’s] political standing in this administration is very low and believe CMCSA would think long and hard about whether a deal is worth the long, arduous process of creating enough goodwill to close the deal,” wrote Raymond James analyst Ric Prentiss.Structuring a spin-mergeCavanagh reminded investors Thursday that just because the company takes a look at assets that are up for sale in the media industry, it doesn’t necessarily mean a deal, or even an offer, could materialize.”I think we’ve said repeatedly, and I’ll say it again, that the bar is very high for us to pursue any M&A transactions, given how strongly we feel about the businesses we have, the strategies we’re pursuing and the opportunities we have ahead of us,” Cavanagh told investors.Comcast’s NBCUniversal is in the process of spinning off its portfolio of cable networks, including CNBC, into a new entity called Versant. Assuming an offer for WBD or other media assets were to come together, it would have to make strategic sense for the future NBCUniversal, which will be led by the broadcast TV network NBC and streaming service Peacock.Many of NBCUniversal’s moves to date have been to boost Peacock’s place in the streaming ecosystem. The company reported Thursday Peacock had 41 million customers as of the end of last month, a subscriber base that has remained flat throughout the year.Cavanagh noted the company would be looking for media assets that complement its post-spin NBCUniversal business.”So in this case, it would be streaming assets and studio assets, since there are no other parks assets out there,” he said. Warner Bros. Discovery’s planned split would separate out exactly those businesses: streaming and studios in one company, which would also house streamer HBO Max, and its global networks into a another.Get the CNBC Sport newsletter directly to your inboxThe CNBC Sport newsletter with Alex Sherman brings you the biggest news and exclusive interviews from the worlds of sports business and media, delivered weekly to your inbox.Subscribe here to get access today.While Paramount’s interest is in the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery, negating a split, other prospective bidders have considered acquiring just some of the assets, CNBC has reported.Cavanagh said, “in light of that, what we’d be looking for and what we’re going to look like post-Versant spin,” a deal isn’t as far-fetched as some view it. In a hypothetical situation in which Comcast were to also spin off NBCUniversal, which is currently slated to remain with the company following the Versant transaction, and merge it with WBD, LightShed analyst Rich Gree …
