John Malone, Rupert Murdoch discussed WBD-Fox merger, per report

It’s the era of mergers and acquisitions for legacy media companies, and two of the most prominent reportedly discussed a tie-up last summer, though nothing materialized.

According to a report by Daniel Thomas in Financial Times, John Malone, the media maven behind the Warner Bros. Discovery, and Rupert Murdoch, patriarch of the Fox Corporation empire, held “serious discussions about merging Fox into Time Warner, into Discovery” during last year’s Sun Valley conference. However, the deal was nixed because there was no clear path for Fox News and CNN to coexist. “The deal ‘probably would have happened if we thought that Fox News and CNN could live under one umbrella,'” Malone said, per Thomas.

On paper, the merger would have made a lot of sense. Fox has much of what Warner Bros. Discovery lacks, and vice versa. The hypothetical joint entity would’ve had a broadcast network, courtesy of Fox, along with NFL and major college football rights, also courtesy of Fox. Warner Bros. Discovery would’ve been able to provide a major streaming platform, HBO Max, along with its large portfolio of sports rights and miscellaneous cable channels. There’s a real argument to be made that a merger would’ve made both companies stronger.

Then, of course, there’s the simmering Murdoch succession drama happening behind the scenes. Last year, Murdoch failed to restructure the family trust in a way that would’ve given his preferred successor, son Lachlan, full control of Fox Corporation. Instead, upon the elder Murdoch’s death, control of his media assets will be split equally among four of his children, some of which could look to reshape the right-wing slant of Fox News in a manner that Murdoch would find untenable.

Rather than leaving his legacy up to chance, some media observers posited that Murdoch would look to sell off the remaining portions of his empire (he already sold most to Disney in a $71.3 billion deal in 2019) prior to his death.

So far, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Fox has gone forward with its own streaming plans, launching Fox One last month. The company also continues to be acquisitive in new media ventures, rather than looking to sell or spin its current assets.

Warner Bros. Discovery has also moved forward with a plan of its own. The company is set to spinoff its legacy cable assets, including TNT Sports, into an entity called Discovery Global, while the film studio and HBO Max will remain under the Warner Bros. umbrella.

However, one nugget in the Financial Times report might still be relevant to sports fans. Malone is currently going forward with a split of one of his other media companies, Liberty Media, which owns Formula 1. Per the report, the split will “make it easier for Malone to pursue a deal involving Formula 1, for which Liberty has already received approaches.” If that remains a goal for Malone, Formula 1 could find itself under new ownership in the coming years.