Warner Bros. Discovery battle shows value of premium content, says Lionsgate's Burns

Melissa Lee (Host) 00:00.190

for more on the battle for warner brothers discovery let's bring in lionsgate vice chairman michael burns friend of the show for more than a decade

Pete Najarian (Co-founder) 00:07.510

since no since the beginning of the show of the

Melissa Lee (Host) 00:10.070

show yes since the carl

Pete Najarian (Co-founder) 00:11.710

icahn like the first michael burns sitting on set yes

Melissa Lee (Host) 00:14.830

we should play some of those clips

Pete Najarian (Co-founder) 00:16.830

michael please don't it's

Melissa Lee (Host) 00:19.110

great to see you how do you see this shaking out

Michael Burns (Vice Chairman) 00:22.070

well i don't have a horse in the game but i think it's in many ways great for us it's certainly validating the value of premium content because obviously the library is attractive for both bidders in this particular case so i don't know who ends up with it i think that that it's

Michael Burns (Vice Chairman) 00:40.320

good for us

Melissa Lee (Host) 00:41.760

there are reports over the summer that legendary was eyeing a deal along with apollo for lionsgate what is the status of that are you still in talks

Michael Burns (Vice Chairman) 00:50.840

i'll never really talk about you know deals or potential deals but there's a lot of obviously everybody over uses the word synergies there's a lot of value to what we have to a lot of different companies which is scale particularly on the library with premium content it's a core

Michael Burns (Vice Chairman) 01:09.670

asset it's that you know john and i have assembled that library over twenty five years it's a billion dollar run rate and it's a big margin business five hundred million dollars plus so it's a valuable asset

Melissa Lee (Host) 01:22.190

have you been entertaining calls

Michael Burns (Vice Chairman) 01:25.550

have i been entertaining calls we're we're paying it we're paying attention OK to what's going on there and look we're in a place that our stock since the separation has moved nicely recently but again we're a pure play that we weren't a pure play when we were combined with

Michael Burns (Vice Chairman) 01:42.470

stars so now you have stars trading on nasdaq where we are right now and you have lionsgate trading on the big board and so we are now back to where we were which is a pure play content company which we think is the right place to be right

Pete Najarian (Co-founder) 01:55.750

now it is the right place to be and this is out there in the public we've talked about it steve minuchin has been buying stock steve cohen 's been buying stock if you just do back in the envelope math you look at where lion gates is trading in terms of this deal and it's too

Pete Najarian (Co-founder) 02:07.470

cheap and i've said that before that's not my question my question who do you think needs it more i you know my sense is netflix could use it but they don't need it paramount the one to me is the one that really needs this does that make sense

Michael Burns (Vice Chairman) 02:20.030

i think it's actually great for either company i think netflix always wants additional look at some of the big performers performers that they've had you know they look at suits for example so i think they could use that you always need great library i think david ellison and

Michael Burns (Vice Chairman) 02:36.990

the team there they want scale and this certainly would give that to them so i think it's good for both again i don't have a horse in the race i think it's it's nice to see valuable content being valued higher

? (Host) 02:53.310

michael mel just mentioned apollo taking a look at you guys do you think you know obviously version is being spun out of NBC universal there's talk that obviously private equity is going to take a look at a lot of these assets do you think that you've been around this business

? (Host) 03:05.510

for a long time what does it mean when private equity starts looking at these sorts of businesses because i have to assume it gives you guys some more room to basically put your head down and just work on focus on the things that you want to focus on

Michael Burns (Vice Chairman) 03:18.790

private equity has i don't know i saw the the trillions and trillions of dollars that they have they want to put it to work they don't get paid unless they put it to work but i do think if you take a look at the landscape the strategic alliances i would think could pay higher

Michael Burns (Vice Chairman) 03:35.110

prices than private equity because of the synergies that are there i could say i could name three or four companies which i won't that i think there 'd be a great strategic alliance with us and there'd be a great deal of synergy savings and if you put a synergy

Melissa Lee (Host) 03:47.630

is not only not only not only letter not not

Michael Burns (Vice Chairman) 03:51.870

only synergies and again for cost synergies but also revenue synergies and if you put a multiple on that it's i think i think we're in a good place