Business
Analysts think Trump would block a Comcast-WBD deal. Comcast says M&A is ‘viable’
Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast, attends the annual Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, July 9, 2025.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Comcast clued investors in to 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,” Cavanagh said 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-merge
Cavanagh 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 that 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 another.
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 Greenfield predicted that deal could get through regulators.
Wolfe Research’s Peter Supino proposed a plan under which NBCUniversal would issue new stock to WBD at an exchange ratio, eliminating Roberts’ voting control over the new company, and appoint a chairman and CEO “not named Roberts.” That combination could lead to a deal, he wrote in a note to clients.
“The primary problems facing a Comcast bid — financing and politics — might be solvable,” Supino wrote.
While Comcast may shy away from pursuing a transaction that could be blocked by the Trump DOJ, even that may not be a dealbreaker.
In the first Trump term, his DOJ blocked AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner, an earlier iteration of Warner Bros. Discovery. In June 2018, a U.S. District Court judge approved the $85.4 billion sale, ruling the government failed to prove the deal would harm consumers.
If it pleases the president
Some Comcast executives think the regulatory concerns are either overblown or, at least, far too early to ascertain, according to people familiar with the matter, who have knowledge of Comcast’s strategy but spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal thinking. There’s some evidence suggesting Comcast’s executives may have a point.
A Comcast spokesperson declined to comment for this article.
Skydance Media received long-awaited Federal Communications Commission approval for its merger with Paramount after the CBS parent agreed to a $16 million settlement with Trump over a “60 Minutes” episode.
While a deal for WBD won’t require FCC review, because Warner Bros. Discovery doesn’t own a broadcaster, a takeover of this size — WBD’s market capitalization is about $53 billion plus another $30 billion in debt — could still draw the scrutiny of Trump’s Department of Justice.
Trump’s reputation as a dealmaker suggests Comcast may be able to avoid any interference by endearing itself to the president.
Comcast is one of 37 companies donating to Trump’s efforts to build a $300 million ballroom for the White House through the Trust for the National Mall.
Trump’s public dislike toward Roberts and Comcast may be bloviation linked to Trump’s assertions that MSNBC, currently owned by NBCUniversal, is left-leaning. It’s unclear if Trump explicitly cares about Comcast or NBCUniversal owning any of the WBD assets other than CNN, which Trump has also routinely criticized.
If his primary issue with Comcast buying WBD is CNN, a divestiture or deal without the network could circumvent those issues. MSNBC will also be spun out into the Versant portfolio.
While Roberts will still be a shareholder of Versant, MSNBC will no longer be a part of Comcast once Versant becomes its own publicly traded company at the start of 2026.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.
BBCWe’ve all looked at our bank account and wondered why we don’t have as much money as we thought we did, and suddenly, the bills, shopping and socialising begin to add up.
For many of us, our relationship with money is strained and dealing with financial matters leaves us feeling overwhelmed or stressed.
If you’re struggling to get on top of your finances, here are four ways to help you manage your money better.
1. Look at when you spend money
Getty ImagesSitting down and thinking about what actually drives you to spend money can help you stop destructive patterns, says journalist and author Anniki Sommerville.
When she previously worked in a very stressful corporate role, she bought new clothes everytime she achieved something difficult or challenging.
“I felt like I deserved to reward myself.
“I had this pattern of spending, which was like ‘you’ve done a really good presentation, now you deserve to buy yourself something.'”
Abigail Foster, a chartered accountant and author, says the easiest way to discover these kinds of habits is looking through your bank statements, to see when you spend the most.
“Is it late at night? Is it the weekends? I have friends that have really bad habits of when they’re bored on the train, they start buying things.”
Understanding these instincts, enables us to put in steps to prevent them.
“You can be better equipped to make an alternative decision and go, ‘Do you know what? I can just take a deep breath and not purchase something.'”
2. Spend an hour a week on your finances
Getty ImagesAnniki says when she was younger, she often felt scared to check her bank balance and avoided dealing with money as much as possible.
This kind of behaviour is often linked to our education, says Claer Barrett, consumer editor at the Financial Times.
“How we felt about maths in school, maybe that burning feeling of shame of not knowing the answer or putting your hand up to answer a question and getting it wrong, that can often make us feel like, I can’t do maths. So therefore, I can’t do money.”
“We should be really pushing on that door and trying to understand more about our financial situation.”
Abigail says the only way to do this is to force yourself to tackle it head on, setting aside a set amount of time each week to look at your bank account and all your outgoings.
“It’s a minimum of an hour a week.
“Just go through your finances and kind of be hit with it. It sounds a lot, but it can be really calming for your nervous system.”
Doing this will often throw up outgoings that you’ve forgotten, such as a subscription for a gym you haven’t been to in six months or a random app you’ve forgotten you’ve subscribed to, she says.
3. Don’t let jargon put you off – ask questions
Getty ImagesOften the terms associated with money can be offputting.
Claer says don’t let words like investing, scare you, instead take time to learn about them.
“Whether we’re talking about stocks and shares, or investing in a pension. We need to give ourselves every advantage financially,” she says.
“So being shy or feeling shameful, not asking these interrogating questions is the worst thing we can do.”
She suggests making a list of things you are unsure about, whether that’s consolidating pensions or asking for a pay rise at work, and slowly working through them.
Don’t be too hard on yourself if you’re just starting.
“We’re all a work in progress. I’ve got my financial to do list at the back of my diary. There are some things that have been on it for more than a year.
“That’s just life, but as long as I can try and do something every week towards making my financial situation a better place, that’s moving forward.”
4. Set up a freedom fund
Getty ImagesMany of us are already too stretched keeping up with the costs of everday living to even think about saving.
But for those who can afford to, Abigail suggests setting up a “freedom fund” to give you options when life gets difficult.
She recommends setting up an easy access account only in your name and not joint, and to put a portion of your income away every month.
Unlike an emergency fund pot for things like unexpected car and house repairs, a freedom fund is money designed to “make you happier.”
“So when a job no longer serves you, you can think ‘I’ve got some money sat away so I can go and look for something else.’
“Or if you want to leave a partner, that freedom fund can give you the ability to walk out.”
Business Secretary Peter Kyle has pledged his support for British industries with an announcement of £420 million energy savings, but declined to comment on whether they would face tax rises in the upcoming Budget.
On Friday, the Government confirmed it was going ahead with plans to increase the discount on electricity network charges for businesses in the most energy-intensive sectors from 60% to 90%.
The move, which was proposed earlier this year and has been subject to a consultation, will see about 500 businesses save up to £420 million a year.
Making the announcement on a visit to the Encirc Glass factory in Elton, near Chester, Mr Kyle said: “This is targeted support for energy intensive industries, so we’ll be injecting into this £420 million worth of savings.
“That means that British businesses from today are going to be £420 million more competitive.”
When asked whether he could reassure businesses in the run up to the Budget next month, he said: “Don’t go on my words, go on my actions.”
Mr Kyle said the Budget, which will be delivered on November 26, would “build on” progress made by the Government since Labour came to power.
Asked whether the Government would stick to manifesto promises not to raise taxes in the Budget, he said: “The Budget will be in a couple of weeks time. But don’t just think about what might happen in the future. Take us at what we have actually done – planning reform, regulatory reform, a 10-year industrial strategy.
“We are making sure that we are targeting support to those high energy industries. We’re making sure we’re getting the infrastructure of our country, with 1.5 million homes, right through to the AI infrastructure that businesses will be depending on in the future right where it needs to be.”
Asked again by the PA news agency if he could confirm whether manifesto pledges not to raise taxes would be kept, he said he would not comment publicly on the Budget.
He said: “There are quite severe market sensitivities around conjecture about the Budget, so we are trying our best to focus businesses on what we are already doing, because that is a very good indication of how we will approach situations like this when we make decisions about the future.
“The Budget will come in a few weeks time and we will be building on all of the great achievements that this Labour government has had since we came into office.”
Mr Kyle was given a tour of the Encirc Glass factory, where bottles for a range of brands, including Guinness, WKD and Yellow Tail wine, are made.
The company’s managing director Sean Murphy said the announcement would be a “major boost” for the company.
He said: “By cutting the costs of energy in this way, the Government is helping our industry to support thousands of jobs across the country whilst we make the transition to renewable sources of power.
“We welcomed the opportunity to engage with the minister on the pressing challenges facing our sector. Continued government support for vital industries like glass manufacturing is essential to safeguarding jobs and unlocking investment across all regions of the UK.”
UK Steel welcomed the announcement, but director general Gareth Stace said it was “frustrating” that it would have to wait until 2027 for the savings.
He said: “The Government’s welcome move to uplift network charging compensation to 90% is a necessary step in the right direction, which will eventually save our sector £14.5 million a year.
“But a price gap will remain, and the wholesale price element must also be reformed next, or the UK steel industry will continue to decline.”
Mr Kyle said the Government was “bold” in supporting the British steel industry and he planned to release a steel strategy later this year.
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, ORLANDO, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES – 2019/07/18: Comcast sign logo in the wall of a building at Universal Studios. (Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Roberto Machado Noa | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Comcast topped Wall Street earnings and revenue estimates for the third quarter on Thursday, but revealed widespread pressures in its broadband unit that spooked investors.
The company said it lost 104,000 domestic broadband customers during the period, bringing its total subscriber base to roughly 31.4 million. This marked the fourth quarter in a row that Comcast failed to grow its broadband customer base.
Earlier this year the company outlined initiatives meant to drive broadband growth — the cornerstone of Comcast’s business — as it has faced fraught competition from alternative providers, namely 5G companies. The company, soon to be led by co-CEOs Brian Roberts and Mike Cavanagh, will be even more reliant on connectivity in the new year after its planned Versant transaction to offload cable network assets.
During Thursday’s call with investors, Cavanagh reiterated the “broadband environment remains intensely competitive.”
Comcast leadership said the broadband business will experience a decline in earnings as its strategy to focus on the mobile business, simplify pricing bundles and enhance broadband-related products and WiFi is put into effect. That decrease began this quarter and will carry through future quarters, the said.
CFO Jason Armstrong also said the division’s average revenue per user, or ARPU, wasn’t expected to grow as the company focuses on initiatives to maintain and grow its customer base. As broadband subscriber additions have slowed or reversed, Comcast has typically focused on the company’s rising ARPU, which is driven by price increases and upselling packages.
The change in broadband playbook means the bright spot that was once rising ARPU doesn’t exist in the near term for Comcast.
“As we’ve said from the beginning, this pivot carries several costs, including rate reinvestment through pricing simplicity, which carries revenue dilution as well as investment in customer experience, which carries additional operating costs,” Armstrong said on Thursday’s call.
This marked the first quarter in which those costs hit Comcast’s results, Armstrong said. It translated to a 3.5% decline in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization across the company’s connectivity and platforms business – made up broadband, mobile, pay TV and other services.
Revenue for the company’s overall connectivity and platforms business came in at $20.18 billion, down nearly 1% from the same period last year.
“On the other side of this, we’re positioning ourselves for growth with a more durable broadband customer base,” Armstrong said.
The refocusing of the broadband strategy also aligned with a leadership change for the unit.
On Thursday, Comcast announced Steve Croney would take over as CEO of the connectivity and platforms division, succeeding longtime leader Dave Watson. Croney has been serving as the chief operating officer of the group amid its new strategic push.
While Comcast has moved toward mobile, that customer base has grown. Comcast said Thursday it added a record number of mobile customers – 414,000 during the third quarter, bringing its total to 8.9 million lines.
Meanwhile, the exodus from the pay TV bundle continued, with Comcast reporting the segment lost 257,000 customers during the period. As of Sept. 30, Comcast had 11.5 million domestic pay TV customers.
Shares of the company closed down 4% on Thursday. In the last year, Comcast shares have fallen about 35%.
Beyond broadband
Comcast’s overall business, which consists of the Xfinity-branded broadband, cable TV and mobile group as well as NBCUniversal, outperformed Wall Street’s estimates.
Here’s how Comcast performed for the period compared with average analyst estimates, according to LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $1.12 adjusted vs. $1.10 expected
- Revenue: $31.2 billion vs. $30.70 billion expected
For the quarter ended Sept. 30, net income attributable to Comcast decreased 8% to $3.33 billion, or 90 cents per share, compared with $3.63 billion, or 94 cents per share, a year earlier.
Adjusting for one-time items, such as interest expense and the value of certain assets, Comcast reported earnings per share of $1.12 for the quarter.
The company’s adjusted EBITDA was down roughly 1% to $9.7 billion.
Overall revenue fell nearly 3% to $31.2 billion, compared with $32.1 billion in the same period last year.
Revenue for the company’s media unit, which houses NBCUniversal, was $6.6 billion, down almost 20% during the period.
Excluding the impact of the Summer Olympics, which took place during the same period last year, revenue was up 4% year over year.
The media division reported EBITDA of $832 million, up 28% year over year, driven in part by streaming service Peacock.
Peacock, which had 41 million subscribers as of Sept. 30 — essentially flat for the last three quarters — reported losses of $217 million for the quarter, an improvement from $436 million in losses during the same period last year.
In October NBCUniversal’s media rights deal with the NBA kicked off, bringing professional basketball back to broadcast network NBC and introducing it to Peacock. The addition of the NBA is expected to give Peacock a boost.
Meanwhile, revenue for the film studio was up 6% to $3 billion – boosted by the release of “Jurassic World Rebirth” in July.
Theme park revenue increased nearly 19% to $2.72 billion, with EBITDA for that unit up 13% to $958 million due to the opening of Epic Universe in May.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.
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