Standard General co-founder Soo Kim has been approached by at least one Warner Bros. Discovery shareholder about acquiring or investing in the company’s cable networks, according to the Financial Times.
The outlet reports “at least one major WBD shareholder” asked Kim about buying all or some of the company’s networks — including CNN, citing people familiar with the matter. The shareholder’s identity was not disclosed.
Representatives for Warner Bros. Discovery and Standard General did not immediately return TheWrap’s request for comment.
The report comes as Warner Bros. Discovery has entered into an $82.7 billion deal with Netflix for its studio and streaming assets. The deal will see WBD’s cable networks spun off into a separate, publicly traded company known as Discovery Global in the third quarter of 2026.
Discovery Global will house TNT Sports in the U.S., Discovery, top free-to-air channels across Europe, Discovery+ and Bleacher Report (B/R). It will also hold the majority of Warner Bros. Discovery’s debt and a 20% stake in the studio and streaming business, which WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels has said can be sold at anytime and has already received interest.
Meanwhile, Paramount has launched a $108.4 billion hostile takeover bid for the entire company, which WBD’s board has advised shareholders against. Paramount has valued the cable networks at $1 per share, while analysts have pegged their value between $3 to $5 per share.
In addition to Netflix and Paramount, Comcast submitted bids for Warner’s studio and streaming assets. Per an SEC filing, two other interested parties, known as Company B and C, expressed interest in the company’s cable networks, though the board determined that neither proposal was “actionable.” TheWrap has learned that Company C is Starz, while Company B is described as “a private holding company and global investment firm.”
Kim, who has worked in the hedge fund industry since 1997, specializes in distressed and special situations investing. Prior to founding Standard General in 2007, he was one of the founding partners and director of research of Cyrus Capital Partners, a principal at Och-Ziff Capital Management and an analyst at the Bankers Trust Company.
The hedge fund is the biggest investor in the gambling, betting and interactive entertainment company Bally’s Corporation and has a major stake in MediaCo Holding Inc., which owns TV, radio and digital media assets such as Hot 97, WBLS, EstrellaTV, Estrella News, Que Buena Los Angeles, the Don Cheto Radio Network and Spanish-language radio brands in Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and New York.
In 2010, Standard General acquired Young Broadcasting out of bankruptcy, which would go on to form Media General and be sold to Nexstar. It also previously acquired nine TV stations from Sinclair Broadcasting. Additionally, it attempted to acquire Tegna for $8.6 billion, though that deal was scrapped by regulators in 2023.
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