WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the news network CNN should be sold as part of a deal for its parent company Warner Bros Discovery or separately.
"CNN should
be sold," Trump told reporters at the White House.
Trump has been a vocal critic of CNN, frequently branding the network as “fake news” and accusing it of biased coverage against him. He has described CNN as “one of the worst in the business” and mocked its ratings as “so low they’re not even counted or relevant anymore.”
Warner Bros is being courted by streaming giant Netflix and Paramount Skydance in separate deals with very different terms. The company accepted Netflix's offer last week, which prompted Paramount to launch a hostile bid on Monday.
Netflix’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros is for assets including HBO, but the deal excludes the company's CNN and other cable networks. Those cable assets, including CNN, TNT, and TBS, are expected to be spun off into a separate entity ahead of the merger.
Paramount’s offer covers the entire Warner Bros company, and Paramount CEO David Ellison - son of billionaire and Trump ally Larry Ellison - has emphasized that his all‑cash bid offers a clearer path through regulators and would integrate CNN with CBS News.
Warner Bros' legal advisers told Paramount's counsel that the board viewed the absence of a full backstop from Ellison's family as a negative, despite the involvement of deep-pocketed sovereign wealth funds. On Wednesday, Paramount sent a letter to Warner Bros shareholders again, saying it has lined up all necessary financing to deliver its $30 per share all-cash offer to them.
Apart from Ellison's involvement, Wall Street has raised concerns about the financing role of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner in the deal, and whether the president's influence could tip the scales in Paramount's favor.
Trump told reporters on Monday that he had not spoken with Kushner about Warner Bros, adding that neither Netflix nor Paramount "are friends of mine." A day earlier, Trump said he would be involved in a decision on Netflix's proposed acquisition of Warner Bros studios and streaming assets.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington, and Sayantani Ghosh in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler and Nick Zieminski)
