Billionaire tech and media investor Barry Diller reportedly expressed interest in buying CNN from Warner Bros. Discovery last year as the media conglomerate planned to split up, though the talks never went beyond preliminary inquiries.
The overtures from Diller were described by The Wall Street Journal as personal and separate from his role as head of media and internet giant IAC.
The idea of Diller buying CNN was never seriously considered and did not advance to the WBD board level, according to The Journal.
Warner Bros. Discovery has said CNN was not and is not for sale.
IAC declined to comment on the report, saying Diller is not commenting on any interest in CNN.
Last month, Netflix agreed to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business in a $72 billion mega merger. WBD plans to spin off Discovery Global — including CNN — into a new publicly-traded company.
WBD executives said CNN is viewed as a core asset of the planned spinoff and plays a critical role in distribution agreements, making a sale impractical and costly from a tax perspective.
“CNN is an incredibly important part of the future of Discovery Global once it separates from Warner Bros,” a WBD rep told The Post in a statement.
“While interest in the premier global news network is not at all new, CNN was not and is not for sale.”
IAC controls Dotdash Meredith, which recently rebranded its corporate name to People Inc., one of the largest digital publishers in the US. Its brands include People, Better Homes & Gardens and Investopedia.
IAC also owns the digital news outlet The Daily Beast.
Diller is married to fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, whom he wed in 2001 after a decades-long relationship.
In recent years, Diller has spoken candidly about his personal life, revealing that he had romantic relationships with men before marrying von Furstenberg and describing their marriage as a deep, enduring partnership.
Before Diller’s outreach, WBD laid out a plan to split the company as part of its proposed deal with Netflix, separating its high-growth studio and streaming assets from its slower-declining cable networks.
Under the structure backed by WBD’s board, the company would first spin off its cable portfolio into a new, publicly traded entity before selling the remaining businesses to Netflix.
The assets slated for sale include Warner Bros.’ film and television studios along with HBO and the HBO Max streaming platform — the crown jewels of the company’s content engine.
Netflix would acquire those businesses outright in an all-cash transaction, giving it control of one of Hollywood’s deepest libraries and some of the most valuable scripted brands in television and film.
The cable networks, including CNN, TNT, TBS and Discovery Channel, would be grouped into a separate company known as Discovery Global.
That entity would remain independent and publicly traded, inheriting the bulk of the legacy cable operations and a significant share of the company’s debt — a point that has become a major flashpoint in the takeover fight.
WBD has argued the split would unlock value by allowing investors to separately price fast-growing streaming and studio assets versus traditional cable networks facing long-term cord-cutting pressure.
Critics, including rival bidder Paramount Skydance, have attacked the plan as overly complex and value-destructive, arguing the spun-off cable company would be left saddled with debt and limited growth prospects.
