The luxury giant needs a cash infusion to pay off a slew of debts that include a $100 million interest payment to bondholders that came due earlier this week. The company also owes millions to vendors, many of whom have not been paid in full for more than a year.

Saks is now in discussions with investors for a massive cash injection to stave off a possible bankruptcy filing, a source with knowledge of the situation told The Post. If those talks fail, the capital could take the form of debtor-in-possession financing in a Chapter 11 reorganization, the source said.

Marc Metrick stepped down as CEO of Saks Global. WWD via Getty Images

“The discussions will likely wrap up within a couple of weeks,” this source said. “It’s not resolved yet.” 

Reports of a possible bankruptcy ramped up this week after the luxury retailer missed an interest payment to bondholders on Tuesday for the $2.7 billion it borrowed to acquire Neiman Marcus a year ago.

Saks Global appears to have bought itself a 30-day grace period for the interest payment, according to RetailStat, which provides credit data and analysis on retailers.

Meanwhile, Saks Global announced on Friday that CEO Marc Metrick is stepping down after a decade at the helm.

Executive chairman, Richard Baker, succeeded Metrick as CEO. Saks Global

“After nearly three decades with Saks, I will be stepping down as chief executive officer,” Metrick said in a statement. “From building a world-class team to establishing Saks.com as a leading luxury e-commerce platform, I am proud of what we accomplished.”

He is succeeded by the company’s executive chairman, Richard Baker, a real estate mogul who was previously CEO before the Neiman Marcus acquisition.

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The company said Metrick, who led Saks Fifth Avenue since 2015, is leaving to “pursue new opportunities.”

Saks Global’s revenues, which include Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Off 5th, dropped 13% in the company’s most recent quarter, which ended Aug. 2.

Saks Global has vast real estate holdings, which it has begun to leverage to raise capital. Bloomberg via Getty Images

In May, the company closed a Saks Fifth Avenue store in San Francisco. This week, it sold the land beneath its Beverly Hills Neiman Marcus shop to Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. for an undisclosed amount. The store now has a long-term lease with the New York-based Ashkenazy.

In June, Saks Global said it raised $600 million in fresh capital from bondholders. It has also sought to sell a minority stake in Bergdorf to raise more funds.

The merger with Nieman Marcus coincided with a slump in demand for luxury goods.

Saks Fifth Avenue fell behind on its payments to vendors. DW labs Incorporated – stock.adobe.com

There have been several rounds of layoffs this year at the company, which operates more than 70 department stores and is the largest luxury retailer in the world.

“Marc has been a valued leader at Saks for many years, helping to drive significant transformation and growth while solidifying the company’s enduring position in luxury,” Baker said in statement. “We thank Marc for his leadership and dedication and wish him continued success in his next chapter.”

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Paramount Skydance’s owners David and Larry Ellison and their partners at RedBird Capital are expected to immediately tell shareholders that they will commit to eventually covering the deal’s $2.8 billion breakup fee — or about $1 share — preserving their all cash bid if enough investors tender their shares in favor of the Paramount deal by its Jan. 8 deadline.

Many investors and even people inside Warner Bros. Discovery expected a bidding war to emerge after Paramount Skydance went “hostile” last week, appealing directly to WBD shareholders to reject the company’s decision to sell the Warner Bros. studio and HBO Max to Netflix for $27.75 a share.

Paramount Skydance has no immediate plans to sweeten its $30-a-share, all-cash bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, sources say. Getty Images

Bidding war talk heated up Tuesday now that WBD is on the verge of formally calling on investors to reject Paramount Skydance’s hostile bid for the entire company. Sources say WBD is planning to make a formal filing possibly as early Wednesday arguing why shareholders should stay the course with Netflix; their argument will mainly center on the “lack of certainty” with the financing sources Paramount Skydance is relying on to upend the Netflix deal. 

But sources close to Paramount Skydance and their investing partners at RedBird Capital say there is nothing uncertain about their financing. 

The feeling inside Paramount Skydance is they “don’t have to do anything immediately, and (they) have to be disciplined based on the feedback from investors,” said one person with direct knowledge of the matter. “(They) have yet to be convinced that Netflix has a better offer and the feedback for the $30 all cash bid has been positive.”

This person pointed to recent comments by famed media investor Mario Gabelli, who has already said he will tender his WBD shares for Paramount’s all-cash bid instead of Netflix’s deal, which is tied up in stock, complex financing, and subject to lengthy regulatory delays. Gabelli has no problem with the company tapping the Persian Gulf for some of its equity, one of the moves cited by WBD for rejecting its offer.

Warner Bros Discovery, headed by CEO David Zaslav, is on the verge of formally calling on investors to reject Paramount Skydance’s hostile bid for the entire company. REUTERS

“I want the money for my clients and I want it quicker,” Gabelli told On The Money.

Reps for WBD and Paramount Skydance had no immediate comment.

Paramount Skydance is arguing it lined up credit lines from Bank of America, Apollo, Larry Ellison, as of now, will chip in $12 billion in cash, and the Gulf State funds will contribute another $24 billion in equity. The sovereign funds are putting up the money without board seats or a say in managing the new company if Paramount Skydance should win, sources said.

Executives at Paramount Skydance also argued their deal’s regulatory certainty since Netflix would be combining those streaming assets, something that will likely touch off a lengthy DOJ antitrust investigation and uncertainty in the courts.

Famed media investor Mario Gabelli, who has already said he will tender his WBD shares for Paramount’s all-cash bid instead of Netflix’s deal. Getty Images for The Buoniconti Fund To Cure Paralysis

Paramount Skydance’s owners David (above)and Larry Ellison and their partners at RedBird Capital are expected to immediately tell shareholders that they will commit to eventually covering the deal’s $2.8 billion breakup fee. REUTERS

WBD and Netflix have countered that the regulatory fears are overdone because so many people rely on social media and YouTube as opposed to streaming for programming. They also have argued — and will argue again in the pending regulatory filing — that they have serious questions about how Paramount Skydance is cobbling together its $78 billion bid and it goes beyond the Gulf state money.

Larry Ellison, the third-richest man in the world with a net worth of $235 billion, has committed to fully backstop the deal with a massive fortune that consists mostly of shares of Oracle. But those shares have lost more than $160 billion in value since the bidding war began in September amid a steep correction in AI related stocks.

As The Post has reported, Paramount Skydance has held early stage internal discussions about increasing its bid for the company to around $30 a share as a way to wrest control of WBD from Netflix.  Getty Images

Moreover, he’s not personally backstopping the deal, they argue, but he’s pledging assets from his “revocable” trust. Paramount Skydance says the argument doesn’t hold water because the trust is where Ellison keeps his massive net worth and has been used as a vehicle for other dealmaking.

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As The Post has reported, Paramount Skydance has held early stage internal discussions about increasing its bid for the company to around $30 a share as a way to wrest control of WBD from Netflix. 

Netflix won the bidding for the the media conglomerate after a months-long slog where WBD chief David Zaslav shopped his company, that includes the No. 1 studio Warner Bros., and No. 3 streaming service known as HBO Max as well as cable properties like CNN and Discovery to a series of major tech and media players from Apple to Amazon to Comcast and its final two bidder Netflix and Paramount Skydance.

When WBD announced Netflix as the winner, Paramount Skydance, as The Post first reported, began taking steps to launch a hostile bid that appeals directly to shareholders. Its argument centered on the superior nature of its bid — all cash versus cash and stock from Netflix — and how the Netflix offer relies on the uncertainty of equity shareholders will receive from sale of a cable assets next year since its just buying the studio and streamer from WBD.

The post Exclusive | Why Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders shouldn’t count on a holiday bidding war appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Sources close to Sobelman, an alum of Colgate University and Brooklyn Law School, said he is to join the David Solomon-led lender “imminently.”

“Robert is leaving and going to run investigations at Goldman,” said one senior source briefed on the matter. “It is part of a recent exodus in the Southern District of New York.”

Sobelman, seen here pointing to disgraced lawyer Michael Avenatti in a courtroom sketch, is understood to be joining Goldman Sachs “imminently.” AP

Sobelman was not immediately available for comment. A Goldman Sachs spokesperson declined to comment.

The 39-year-old US attorney is currently the chief of the public corruption unit at the Southern District of New York in Manhattan. He’s the latest in a string of high-profile exits from 26 Federal Plaza after the Trump administration ordered that the case against Adams be dropped.

Those included former interim Manhattan US attorney Danielle Sassoon, a conservative Trump appointee who in February had refused to comply with Trump’s order to drop the Adams case.

At least 10 other federal prosecutors in Manhattan left this spring following the fracas.

Sobelman was one of the hotshot corruption lawyers who worked on the charges against outgoing mayor Eric Adams before they were ultimately dismissed by a federal judge. J.C. Rice

Sobelman’s victories in the US Southern District included helping to jail disgraced New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez for bribery. Brigitte Stelzer

Jay Clayton, who had served as the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term in the White House, became the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York in August after serving on an interim basis since April. He replaced Damian Williams, a Joe Biden appointee.

Sobelman’s victories in the US Southern District included helping to jail disgraced New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez for bribery. In 2022, he led the case against Michael Avenatti, the former lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels, who was jailed for attempting to extort Nike for $25 million.

How The Post reported Avenatti’s 2022 jailing following the Sobelman prosecution of the disgraced attorney.

Avenatti, who was jailed on an initial 14-year sentence that was later reduced to eight, was also accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the porn star Stormy Daniels, who claimed that she had sex with President Trump.

Sobelman also helped prosecute the case against Steve Bannon, Trump’s one-time chief strategist, over fraud allegations that overshadowed an online crowdfunding campaign known as “We Build the Wall”.

Bannon eventually pleaded guilty in February to one count of scheme to defraud, a low-level felony, and avoided jail time.

Sobelman’s close friend David Kusnetz recently told Colgate University’s magazine that Sobelman’s “successful prosecutions of powerful political figures are a testament to how he always approached challenges at Colgate — with integrity and grit.”

The post Exclusive | Goldman Sachs taps hotshot SDNY lawyer Robert Sobelman to run internal investigations appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Last year, Meta forecast it would earn $16 billion – or 10% of its revenue – by running scam ads, according to bombshell documents obtained last month by Reuters. Critics say the eye-popping number confirms that fraud has effectively become a core part of the company’s business — especially at Facebook, which boasts more than 3 billon monthly active users.

The documents revealed Meta bans accounts only if its systems flag an at least 95% chance that they are committing fraud — an absurdly high bar that invites fraudsters with minimal policing, critics say. What’s more, the more suspicious the ad buyer, the higher the fees for posting ads — a supposed deterrent to bad behavior which instead amounts to “pay to play,” experts say.

Lawmakers have called on Mark Zuckerberg to face a federal investigation over the scam ads. AP

Erin West, a former California prosecutor who has founded a nonprofit to combat online scams, said the documents prove Meta is turning a blind eye to the fraud because it is a “major moneymaker” for the company.

“To know that Facebook is aware of this and they tolerate it – and in fact, they even command additional fees from the worst offenders – is egregious,” West said. “The practice itself is outrageous, jaw-dropping, unacceptable, but when you think about it story by story, it really becomes horrific.”

SafelyHQ, a fraud reporting platform, has collected more than 50,000 verified complaints from online scam victims. When the reports mention where the victims got scammed, Facebook is cited a whopping 85% of the time, according to data exclusively obtained by The Post.

Other platforms, including Meta-owned Instagram, Google, TikTok, and X account for the remaining 15%.

The reports are only a tiny fraction of the big picture, according to Patrick Quade, the CEO and founder of SafelyHQ. The Federal Trade Commission says most fraud goes unreported, and Quade says just 12% of scam victims who submit reports identify a host site.

Facebook is cited for hosting scam ads more than any other platform. SafelyHQ

“For 50,000 people to find us and independently document their losses implies a victim count in the tens of millions,” Quade told The Post. “This isn’t ‘cherry-picking’—it is the overflow of a systemic failure that Meta’s own documents confirm.”

Brian Kuhn, a 68-year-old California resident, says he was scammed out of $70 while trying to buy classic vinyl records by James Brown, The Dead Kennedys, Bob Dylan and the Buzzcocks from a “going out of business” sale on Facebook. The sale turned out to be a fake, and the records never arrived.

“It felt a little creepy that they seemed to know my taste so well,” Kuhn told The Post. “I somehow blame myself equally, but that doesn’t excuse Facebook from allowing the thieves to prey on people.”

Meta’s scam ad epidemic has drawn attention on Capitol Hill, where US Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have demanded a federal investigation.

“Perversely, Meta reportedly charges higher rates for ads that it suspects might be fraudulent — in effect, imposing a scam tax that provides an additional lucrative revenue stream that it knows is tied to fraud,” the senators wrote in Nov. 22 letter.

Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the leaked documents “present a selective view that distorts Meta’s approach to fraud and scams.”

Just a fraction of people who report scams identify where they saw the ad in the first place. SafelyHQ

Stone said Meta’s practice of charging suspected scammers more in its ad auctions have proven effective, with internal tests showing a decline in scam reports as well as a slight decline in ad revenue. The company also recently said it has expanded its advertiser verification efforts.

“We aggressively fight fraud and scams because people on our platforms don’t want this content, legitimate advertisers don’t want it and we don’t want it either,” Stone said in a statement. “Scammers are persistent criminals whose efforts, often driven by ruthless cross-border criminal networks that operate on a global scale, continue to grow in sophistication and complexity.”

Over the last 15 months, the company said reports about scam ads have declined by more than 50%. Meta has removed more than 134 million scam ads this year alone.

The internal documents obtained by Reuters showed Meta researchers have been warning for years about the extent of the company’s ad fraud problem, and how it seemed to be trailing rivals in cracking down.

One May 2025 presentation estimated that Meta was involved in one-third of all successful scams in the US, the report said. In a separate April 2025 review, the company concluded it was “easier to advertise scams on Meta platforms than Google.”

SafelyHQ’s data shows scams are rife all over the country. SafelyHQ

In October, a Delaware-based Facebook user named Betty got scammed by a Facebook ad for Laura Geller cosmetics. She said she was suspicious because the goods were cheap and required PayPal, but decided to buy anyway because the ad featured Laura Geller’s logo and branding.

Instead, she got cheap knockoff products from a Chinese label she didn’t recognize.

“Believe me, that’s all you see are ads,” Betty said. “You like one thing or look at something or you make a comment about one thing and then these ads appear. Obviously, some are fake and you can tell that. Some are really good – they’re fake, but you really can’t tell at first.”

In total, SafelyHQ has compiled more than 5,000 verified reports of scam ads specifically on Facebook and Instagram.

A teenager poses for a photo while holding a smartphone in front of a Facebook logo in this illustration taken September 11, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration REUTERS

“The ‘fox’ isn’t even guarding the hen house – it’s charging a toll for other foxes to walk right in,” Quade said. “This is an epidemic. Meta’s system is algorithmically trapping regular citizens in e-commerce scams, while their policy protects $16 billion in scam revenue. The time for voluntary oversight is over.”

Online watchdog Consumer Reports has also called on the FTC and state attorneys general to clamp down.

The “elephant in the room” is Meta’s reliance on protections offered by Section 230, which protects social media sites from being held liable for third-party content, according to Justin Brookman, Consumer Report’s director of tech policy.

Policy tweaks, such as adding an exception for Section 230 for paid advertising, would force Meta to take action, he argued.

Meta allows suspected scammers to buy ads at a higher rate. AFP via Getty Images

“It would certainly realign the incentives to make Meta care more about all the fraud and scams and illegal activity on their platforms,” said Brookman.

The real fix, according to Quade, won’t come until regulators begin treating high-volume ad gatekeepers like Meta as if they are financial institutions rather than social media companies.

That could include strict “know your consumer” or “know your business” rules requiring Meta to properly vet its advertising partners at its own cost.

“You can’t let the company profiting from the crime be the one in charge of stopping it,” Quade said.

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Members of Congress “were displeased, shocked, engaged and ready to consider legislative and oversight action,” Lindsay Owens, executive director of consumer advocacy group Groundwork Collaborative told The Post on Thursday, after meeting with 15 lawmakers.

The report finding Instacart charged hundreds of customers widely different prices at  big chains including Target, Kroger, Safeway, Albertsons and Costco came as Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) introduced legislation to ban such practices.

Instacart is a delivery company that handles mostly grocery deliveries. Bloomberg via Getty Images

“Greedy corporations are compiling Americans’ personal data and using AI to find their ‘pain point’ – the maximum they’re willing to pay. That’s not fair pricing, that’s predatory pricing. My bill puts an end to it,” Gallego said in a statement.

Sen Ruben Gallego (D. Ariz.) introduced The One Fair Price Act. Getty Images

The lawmaker flagged January research from the Federal Trade Commission showing that retailers “frequently use customers’ personal information – everything from their location to the type of device they are searching on – to set tailored prices for goods and services,” according to his office.

In the House of Representatives, lawmakers are exploring ways to curb dynamic pricing, which sometimes employs AI tools to track customer data.

“They wanted to know what types of legislation they could pursue to protect consumers from this practice,” said Owens, who met with all Dems.

Instacart is on the hotseat after a report was released showing that grocery shoppers are being charged differently in the same stores. JHVEPhoto – stock.adobe.com

The pols were part of the “Congressional Dad’s Caucus” of Dems focusing on working families.

Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D.-Calif.) said after meeting with Owens, he’s “weighing next steps to bring costs down and rein in this type of pricing.”

“If Instacart’s AI pricing is quietly, unfairly and/or deceptively making some people pay more for the same groceries, that’s a big problem,” he said in a statement to The Post.

Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) said he’ll take steps to crack down on “dynamic pricing.” CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Any action on dynamic pricing would need GOP buy-in in the Republican-controlled House and Senate.

The high cost of living has caught the attention of pols across the political spectrum in recent months.

The Groundwork Collaboration report found that Instacart charged Target customers at a North Canton, Ohio store $2.99 for Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter one day in September – while other Instacart users that day paid as much as $3.59 for the same jar picked up from the same location. 

Target distanced itself from Instacart’s pricing strategy, stating that it is “not affiliated with Instacart.” Christopher Sadowski

Target said in response to the findings that it is not “affiliated with Instacart and is not responsible for prices on the Instacart Platform.” 

Instacart was likely trying to determine how much money it could make off of Target shoppers, Owens said.

“At a place like Target which is not known for being on the low-end, Instacart was probably like ‘this is an interesting place for us to explore a higher mark-up,” she explained.

Instacart did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company previously told The Post that its price “tests,” which “have now ended,” are never based on personal characteristics of shoppers and do not change in real time.

The post Exclusive | Lawmakers mull action on ‘dynamic’ AI-powered pricing in wake of ‘shocking’ Instacart report appeared first on Our Story Insight.

The 50-year-old former People boss announced his departure from the publication in an email to staffers on Friday.

“After much consideration, I have chosen to leave my position as editor-in-chief of Us Weekly to develop my own creative projects in film and books,” he wrote. “My last day will be January 9, 2026.”

Wakeford said he planned to contribute to special projects with the magazine. NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

But Wakeford hinted that next year his byline could still appear in the publication, which claimed a combined print and digital circulation of 2 million last year, according to data from the Alliance for Audited Media.

“In 2026, I look forward to contributing to Us Weekly on special projects,” he wrote.

Us Weekly insiders told The Post that Wakeford has been “forced out” because he had failed to land headline-grabbing exclusives with top Hollywood stars.

“He promised them big people like Julia Roberts and Jennifer Aniston,” said one source. “But he delivered Sandra Lee and Countess Luann.”

The top story on Us Weekly’s website on Friday evening was an exclusive about how “Love Is Blind” star Alexa Lemieux “fired back” at claims made by her estranged husband, Brennon Lemieux, in a divorce filing.

A separate source also claimed that Wakeford was rarely in the office, choosing instead to work remotely.

Insiders told The Post that recent Us Weekly covers under Wakeford’s leadership lacked the star quality of previous editions. This is an issue from 2018 after Britain’s Prince Harry married Meghan Markle.

“He was not really very hands-on,” the source told The Post. “He was never there.”

The claim echoed an exclusive story by The Post last year when Wakeford had a stint as the editor-in-chief of the ill-fated media start-up, the Messenger.

While he had a whopping $900,000 annual salary, sources told The Post at the time, the site shuttered just nine months after its launch.

“People did not know he was British,” a Messenger staffer said, adding that the first time they heard Wakeford speak was during an emergency meeting shortly before the company was shuttered in late January 2024.

Wakeford got his latest gig in March.

The entertainment mag, which is based in New York City, was founded as Us, a bi-weekly, in 1977 by the New York Times Company, which sold it in 1980.

It has changed hands multiple times since then, becoming part of the McClathy Media Company that owns the Miami Herald in 2024.

The Post has approached a McClatchy spokesperson for comment.

The post Exclusive | Dan Wakeford out as EIC of celeb gossip mag Us Weekly appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Netflix has submitted a bid valued at $28 a share – edging past a Paramount Skydance bid for the entire company valued in the $26 to $27 range, a source close to the situation told The Post. It’s unclear where the bidding for Thursday’s third-round bidding stands, but officials at Paramount Skydance are arguing that even at a higher level, Netflix’s offer must be discounted because of the uncertainty it brings.

The DC visit comes amid mounting pessimism from Paramount Skydance about its bid; senior executives believe the WBD is inclined to nix its offer in favor of Netflix despite the latter’s regulatory hurdles, as first reported by the Post. As reported, Paramount Skydance signaled in multiple letters this week that it could go hostile with its offer for WBD – arguing that the Netflix deal poses unacceptable risks for WBD shareholders.

In addition to the DC lobbying, Paranmount boss David Ellison has sent at least two letters to the WBD board AFP via Getty Images

Meanwhile on Wednesday, Ellison was in Washington with his legal team headed by Makan Delrahim, Trump’s former DOJ antitrust chief, sources said. They underscored in conversations with Trump officials and lawmakers in Congress why Netflix’s proposed deal to acquire its Warner Bros. studio and HBO Max streaming service should be throttled on antitrust grounds, sources said. 

The combination would combine the nation’s largest streaming service, Netflix, with the third largest in HBO Max as well as a leading studio. 

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Ellison’s meetings in Washington capped a frenzied day of dealmaking and political gamesmanship for the one-time independent movie producer who along with his father, mega billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, are attempting to build a media empire by purchasing all of WBD assets, a deal that could cost between $60 billion and $70 billion. 

Worrying the Ellisons is the word from WBD that the board may well take a chance and pick Netflix as a winner, despite opposition from the Trump administration where officails are worried about Netflix’s alleged monopolistic power in the streaming space. Combined with HBO Max, Netflix would control 400 million streaming subs and a major studio.

Paramount official told Trump regulatory officials and lawmakers in Congress that Netflix’s proposed deal to acquire its Warner Bros. studio and HBO Max streaming service should be throttled on antitrust grounds Getty Images

But, as The Post was first to report, Zaslav is warming up to Netflix’s bid for two of the largest chunks of the company, its streaming service and studio, and looks willing to fight in court any rejection from Trumps DOJ antitrust. 

All of which would upend the Ellisons’ grand ambitions, which began with their unsolicited offer to buy the company known as WBD in September for $23.50 a share. 

Netflix, meanwhile, has hired veteran telecom lawyer Steve Sunshine to make the case that the streaming king wouldn’t obtain monopoly pricing power in the streaming space with the WBD purchase because of the rise of programming alternatives to live YouTube and various forms of social media.

A spokeswoman for Paramount Skydance declined to comment. Reps for Zaslav and Netflix didn’t return requests for comment.

Netflix has submitted a bid valued at $28 a share that was higher than Paramount’s/ Getty Images

The DC lobbying by Ellison and his team is seen as further proof that what was once seen as a near done deal to purchase WBD, based on its access to cash through Larry Ellison’s fortune and ties to the Trump administration could be slipping away. Paramount Skydance is making an all-cash bid for the entire company, including cable channels CNN and HBO and promising Zaslav and the WBD board a glide path through US regulators.

Netflix is offering mostly cash in its bid and obvious resistance from the Trump administration, and as reported, its Department of Justice’s antitrust division. But Zaslav and Sarandos are close, and the WBD chief may be willing to fight the government’s attempt to block a Netflix deal in federal court, people close to the matter say.

Media giant Comcast is also bidding on the WBDs studio and streaming service but its offer appears the weakest since it’s a combination of cash and stock.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO Zaslav is warming up to Netflix’s bid for two of the largest chunks of the company, its streaming service and studio. Getty Images

In addition to the DC lobbying, David Ellison has sent at least two letters to the WBD board, one which warned the company that it has no chance to gain Trump regulatory approval and uncertainty in the federal courts that could depreciate its assets. A second more strident letter came Thursday, just as WBD was asking for another round of bids.

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In that Paramount Skydance wrote that WBD “embarked on a myopic process with a predetermined outcome that favors a single bidder.” It accused top officials involved in weighing the bids of conflict of interests since they might be offered jobs at the combined entity if Netflix wins.

Reps for Paramount Skydance say the letter is a warning shot to WBD that it might take its offer above to board an appeal for its shareholders because of the low likelihood of regulatory approval of the Netflix offer.

The post Exclusive | Paramount Skydance’s David Ellison meets with Trump officials as Netflix makes highest bid for WBD: sources appeared first on Our Story Insight.

The high-level meeting that took place about 10 days ago hasn’t been previously reported. Several White House officials also suggested during the sitdown that a broader investigation is necessary focusing on Netflix’s market power, a government official who attended the confab said.  

“Basically everyone agreed that Netflix presents unique antitrust concerns and if it won the bidding war it would be one long slog and touch off an investigation along the lines of those of Google and Amazon,” the government official said. 

Netflix’s interest in acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery has raised antitrust concerns at the White House, sources told The Post. Getty Images

“Netflix already has market dominance but if you add a major streaming service that would stifle competition at some point,” the official added.

White House and Netflix press reps had no immediate comment.

The meeting comes as the Warner Bros. Discovery board has scheduled a Monday afternoon deadline to receive a second round of offers for the company. WBD controls the No. 1-ranked Warner Bros. studio and the No 3 streaming service, HBO Max, as well as a slew of cable channels including HBO and CNN.

Paramount Skydance, controlled by Hollywood producer David Ellison and his father, billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, is expected to raise its initial bid, which in mid-October came in at $23.50 a share for the entire company.

Cable giant Comcast, run by Brian Roberts, is also expected to sweeten a more recent offer, although it has been given low odds of making it through the Trump regulatory gauntlet because of the president’s disdain for Comcast’s relentlessly anti-MAGA cable channel MSNBC, recently renamed MS NOW. 

Warner Bros. Discovery’s board has scheduled a Monday afternoon deadline to receive a second round of offers for the company. SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Meanwhile, Netflix is also expected to make a sweetened bid for WBD’s studio and streaming service – and faces a different but equally difficult set of hurdles getting regulatory approval, Trump officials said during the meeting.

The 28-year-old company created by Reed Hastings and led by its voluble CEO Ted Sarandos is currently the world’s largest streaming service with 300 million subscribers. White House officials at the meeting suggested its size could hamper competition in streaming where Americans increasingly consume their entertainment as cord cutting continues to shrink the cable TV business. They also raised the likelihood of European regulatory push back, the government official said.

Sarandos as well as a slew of company legal officials and lobbyists have been pressing the flesh in DC. As previously reported by The Post, they’ve been pleading a case that an acquisition of the No. 3 streamer and a major studio wouldn’t violate antitrust laws because of a legal theory known as “category ambiguity.”

Netflix chief Ted Sarandos and company legal officials and lobbyists have been pleading the case in Washington, DC that a deal for No. 3 streamer HBO Max and a major studio wouldn’t violate antitrust laws. Alan West/Hogan Media/Shutterstock

According to the theory, antitrust law doesn’t necessarily apply to streaming services because of the prevalence of content that’s available on YouTube, TikTok and other social media. The idea is that streaming video is now so ubiquitous that it can’t be cornered and price gauged in the traditional sense.

But the pitch, while winning converts with members of the WBD board and some quarters of the DC regulatory framework, is now being met with significant skepticism from senior White House officials who advise Trump on media policy, according to a government official who attended the meeting last week. 

Trump officials also voiced concern that Netflix is already wielding enormous power in the Hollywood ecosystem, not just with consumers but also when dealing with program creators and talent. A recurring theme of Trump’s regulatory agenda during his first term and today has been anti-competitive business models of media and tech concentration, the source noted. 

Paramount Skydance, controlled by Hollywood producer David Ellison, above, and his father, billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, is expected to raise its initial bid of $23.50 a share for all of Warner Bros. Discovery. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

If Netflix’s bid won out, the scale and scope of the deal to buy HBO Max and the studio should lead to a lengthy, possibly yearslong probe by the DOJ’s antitrust division run by Trump appointee Gale Slater. The probe could expand beyond the merits of its WBD deal to its entire operations, “something that the company has avoided until now,” the government official who attended said.  

The meeting follows a letter by GOP California congressman Darrell Issa to Slater and her boss US AG Pam Bondi warning that “Netflix currently wields unequaled market power. Adding both HBO Max’s subscribers and Warner Bros.’ premier content rights would further enhance this position.”

But Sarandos may feel he has no choice but to make a run at WBD, and eventually fight off Trump’s regulatory cops in federal court if they nix his bid.

“If Paramount owns all its content plus Warner and HBO they will have control of a massive and quality library, and put Netflix behind the eight-ball in terms of negotiating for WBD content on its streaming service,” a media industry insider told The Post.

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People with direct knowledge say that Roberts – scrambling to reinvigorate Comcast’s shrinking empire – plans to join a second round of bidding next week for WBD, which owns the No. 1 Hollywood studio, the No. 3 streamer in HBO Max plus cable properties like HBO and CNN. 

Roberts is even weighing a potential offer that could catapult him ahead of his rivals – a bid that could possibly reach a valuation of $27 or $28 a share, according to the sources. And that’s just for its studio and streaming businesses.  

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, second from right, is said to be planning to join a second round of bidding for Warner Bros, Discovery, challenging Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, second from left.

To be sure, Roberts and his team have not, as of press time, come up with a final number, these people say. But if they bid to those levels, it would be a respectable premium to the roughly $25 a share already placed by Paramount Skydance for the entire company – an offer worth about $60 billion. It would also likely surpass the first-round bid made by Netflix, which is also vying for the studio and streaming pieces of WBD, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

One thing is certain: Roberts knows he needs to play hardball to win, these sources say. He’s making a run at WBD despite extreme reluctance from the Trump administration to approve anything Roberts touches given his long stewardship of the Trump-hating cable channel MS NOW. 

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Comcast CEO Brian Roberts knows he needs to play hardball to win, sources told On The Money. Bloomberg via Getty Images

Plus, he is said to believe he has no choice given Comcast’s challenges: a laggard streaming service in Peacock, a second-place network in NBC, and a smallish studio on top of lots of debt as he spins off MS NOW and other cable channels into a new company. He has cable pipes but that’s seen as a declining business. 

Rich Greenfield, the widely followed “ax” of media analysts at LightShed Partners, believes Comcast needs to fight hard for WBD or face being run over by bigger media and tech players. “Can you imagine what happens if Comcast loses, what happens to Peacock?” he tells On The Money. “They will be the only ones on the dance floor with no obvious partner.”

The thinking is that with a leading bid Roberts might be able to get the greenlight from the WBD board for a bid and then successfully challenge in federal court any rebuttal from the Trump DOJ antitrust department, arguing that in the age of multiple streaming services, content being offered on YouTube and social media, no significant antitrust issues exist with his offer.

Roberts – scrambling to reinvigorate Comcast’s shrinking empire – plans to join a second round of bidding next week for WBD, which owns the No. 1 Hollywood studio and the No. 3 streamer in HBO Max. Getty Images

A Comcast spokesman declined to comment.

As The Post has reported, Netflix has launched its own charm offensive to prove that its bid faces less regulatory scrutiny. Some members of the WBD board are warming to the Netflix offer after hearing arguments from Netflix legal staff that normal antitrust concerns would not apply to the combination of its No. 1 streamer in the world, with WBD’s No. 3.

David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance has already made an offer worth about $60 billion. AFP via Getty Images

That’s because of something known as “category ambiguity.” It’s impossible to corner the streaming market through such combinations because of the reach of YouTube and social media. The Netflix bid allows WBD to spin off its cable assets as was previously planned, which is seen as another positive for its offer.

Reps for Netflix and DOJ antitrust had no immediate comment.

One problem for WBD in valuing the bids is that Comcast only wants its streaming service and studio; thus, its overall value is derived from how much he’s offering for those two units so it’s not quite an apple-to-apple comparison with the money being put up by Paramount Skydance. Roberts will also have to borrow or seek equity partners to finance his offer given Comcast’s relatively modest balance sheet. 

The WBD board and CEO David Zaslav also might decide they don’t want to roll the dice with its bid for chunks of the company when it can simply sell everything to Paramount Skydance. AFP via Getty Images

Another complicating factor is political opposition from Trump, who is said to be adamantly opposed to making Comcast stronger. Roberts could read the room and change his mind in the coming days as the second-round bidding deadline of Dec. 1 approaches, people close to him tell me. 

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That’s because to stay the course he will have to play the long game, and convince the WBD board to do the same through a two-year process that includes a lengthy probe by the Trump-appointed DOJ antitrust chief Gale Slater, and then lawsuit in federal court where a win isn’t a given. 

The WBD board and CEO David Zaslav also might decide they don’t want to roll the dice with its bid for chunks of the company when it can simply sell everything to Paramount Skydance, run by David Ellison and his father, the Trump supporting mega-billionaire Larry Ellison. 

They will receive a far easier ride through the regulatory apparatus with Slater in their effort to buy the entire company, according to media executives with direct knowledge of the agency’s thinking.

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The consortium would replace JLL, which checked out of the role last summer.

PIA, which answers to the Pakistani government, was recently reported by Saudi Arabia-based daily Arab News to be weighing proposals from seven potential groups to advise on the Roosevelt’s future and to facilitate any deal. The Morgan Stanley team would include CBRE, Manhattan’s most prolific commercial brokerage. 

The future of the precious Roosevelt Hotel site — which might be worth more than $1 billion —  is in limbo again. Robert Miller

Nothing about PIA’s plans could immediately be confirmed.

One source cautioned, “The Roosevelt owners have played with one scenario after another for at least 10 years and never did anything.”

A JLL team headed by the firm’s regional CEO Peter Riguardi resigned from the account last summer. A Pakistani government agency attributed JLL’s move to its wish to avoid any “perceived or actual conflict of interest,” as the firm represents several clients said to be interested in the site.

Since then, PIA has not announced a new financial adviser, a role that would include essentially brokering an outright sale of the site or a partial sale with a development partner. Arab News claimed that PIA would “fast-track” choosing a new adviser this month.

But one skeptical, prominent Manhattan investment-sales dealmaker said, “Who knows? It’s been a colossal waste of time, mostly because the property is tied to the government of Pakistan and their military leaders which turn over pretty consistently.”

While JLL’s departure was attributed to potential for “conflict of interest,” it isn’t uncommon for major Manhattan brokerages to work both sides of a deal.

“It often helps to make a sale or a lease easier,” an insider said. “They put up a so-called ‘Chinese wall’ between the two negotiating teams and it generally holds up.”

A JLL team headed by the firm’s regional CEO Peter Riguardi resigned from the account last summer. Erik Thomas/NY Post

Nor is it unheard of for brokers to rep developers hoping to build in the same areas. Moreover, JLL’s client list — which includes both leading developers and tenants — was no secret to either the brokerage or to PIA when the airline tapped JLL in February 2024.

Riguardi declined to comment. Emails to PIA seeking comment weren’t returned.

As previously reported in The Post, Pakistan’s government needs the dough from a Roosevelt sale to help support a $7 billion bailout arrangement with the International Monetary Fund.

The Roosevelt site between Madison and Vanderbilt avenues and between East 44th and East 45th streets is one of Manhattan’s most valuable pieces of land, situated in an East Midtown corridor where prestigious tenants have flocked to new office developments near Grand Central Terminal.

Migrants at the Roosevelt Hotel in 2023. James Messerschmidt for NY Post

The shuttered hotel lies amidst the new JP Morgan Chase headquarters tower at 270 Park Ave., a future Boston Properties (BXP) tower at 343 Madison Ave., and an unspecified SL Green development site on the former Brooks Brothers store at 346 Madison.

A new office tower at the Roosevelt site could have as much as 1.8 million square feet under Midtown zoning that allows large-size bonuses in exchange for significant pedestrian and transit improvements.

The 1,000-room Roosevelt Hotel has been vacant since the city in June terminated a contract with PIA to use it as a migrant shelter.

The 1,000-room Roosevelt Hotel has been vacant since the city in June terminated a contract with PIA to use it as a migrant shelter. Matthew McDermott

PIA has repeatedly changed its mind about what to do with the property since it took control in 2000. It was reported at different times that the airline would pursue an outright sale or seek a majority or minority development partner.

In the latest twist, Pakistan privatization official Muhammad Ali told Arab News earlier this month the building might not be demolished anytime soon, but would reopen as a hotel.

That suggestion drew laughs from Manhattan hotel experts who said reopening it  would take at least a year just to clean up the mess left behind by a year of migrant occupation.

“By that time, the markets for both offices and hotels might have changed,” one industry insider scoffed.

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