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M&A Madness: Warner Bros., Bill.com, and C3 AI Join Growing Auction Season

MarketDash Editorial Team
23 days ago
A wave of major deals is reshaping the corporate landscape as Bill.com and C3 AI hit the auction block, streaming giants circle Warner Bros. Discovery, and private equity firms hunt for opportunities from packaging to cloud infrastructure.

Fresh Meat on the Auction Block

The deal market is heating up with some notable names going on the selling block. Bill.com (BILL), the business-payments platform, has tapped a financial adviser to run an auction process, according to Bloomberg. This isn't exactly a surprise—activist investor Starboard Value has been circling the company, and Starboard has a reputation for buying stakes in public companies and pushing them toward strategic sales. When activists come knocking, companies tend to listen.

Meanwhile, C3 AI (AI) is also shopping itself around. The timing here is interesting: CEO Tom Siebel just resigned due to health concerns, and Reuters broke the news that the company decided to explore a sale shortly after. Stephen Ehikian has stepped into Siebel's shoes as the new chief executive. Leadership transitions often trigger strategic reviews, and it looks like C3 AI's board decided a sale might be the best path forward.

Clearwater Analytics (CWAN) is having quite the year. Earlier in 2025, the Boise, Idaho-based software company was on the buy side, snapping up SaaS platform Enfusion for $1.5 billion. Now, according to Bloomberg, Clearwater finds itself on the sell side. Sometimes companies make acquisitions to bulk up before their own sale—we'll see if that's the playbook here.

In the hospitality space, London-based real estate investor Quadrum Global has hired Moelis & Co. and Eastdil Secured to field offers for boutique lodging chain Arlo Hotels and the underlying real estate assets. The hotel market has been consolidating steadily, and boutique chains with prime urban locations tend to attract attention from larger operators and real estate investors alike.

Deals in Progress

Private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice is considering a takeover of Sealed Air (SEE), the Charlotte-based packaging company famous for Bubble Wrap and Instapak. The company is valued at $5.35 billion, and its stock jumped over 20% when word of the potential deal leaked out. What makes this particularly interesting is that a takeover could trigger broader M&A activity if Sealed Air's food and protective packaging units get split up and sold separately. The company previously offloaded several divisions to Bain Capital for $3.2 billion back in 2017. According to the Wall Street Journal, this move reflects a broader trend: private equity is returning to industrial and service-sector deals after spending years obsessed with tech.

In the human resources software world, Dayforce (DAY) stockholders approved an acquisition offer from private equity firm Thoma Bravo on November 12. Shareholders will receive $70 per share in cash, and the transaction is expected to close in late 2025 or early 2026. Another one bites the dust in the ongoing wave of take-private deals.

The entertainment industry is where things get really spicy. Paramount Skydance (PSKY), Comcast (CMCSA), and Netflix (NFLX) are all preparing bids for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). Nonbinding first-round offers are due November 20, according to the Wall Street Journal. Paramount's latest bid values Warner Bros. at $23.50 per share—that's nearly 90% above the pre-bid stock price, which tells you how seriously these suitors are taking this auction. Comcast and Netflix are primarily interested in Warner Bros.' movie and TV studios plus the HBO Max streaming service. They explicitly don't want the cable assets like CNN, TNT, and the Discovery Channel, which makes sense given that traditional cable is slowly dying. Warner Bros. Discovery is running a tight auction process and hopes to wrap everything up by year-end.

Over in India, Blackstone (BX) wants to buy a majority stake in Mumbai-based cloud infrastructure firm Neysa Networks. SoftBank is also considering taking a minority position, per Bloomberg. Cloud infrastructure continues to be one of the hottest sectors for dealmaking, especially in high-growth markets like India.

Private equity firm Clearlake Capital Group is making a big move by acquiring investment manager Pathway Capital Management for nearly $1 billion. The Wall Street Journal expects this deal to roughly double Clearlake's assets under management to $185 billion. Pathway, based in Irvine, California, manages about $95 billion in assets, primarily for institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals. This acquisition positions Clearlake just below the top 10 private equity firms by assets—not a bad place to be.

In the luxury fashion space, private equity firm Permira wants to sell luxury sneaker maker Golden Goose. Permira bought a majority stake back in 2020 from Carlyle, and now it's looking for an exit. HongShan Capital Group is reportedly interested, with Reuters pegging the deal at around $3 billion. Premium sneakers have become a surprisingly hot asset class.

Reuters also provided an update on the Castrol lubricants unit of BP (BP). Private equity firms One Rock and Stonepeak have both submitted offers. Energy companies have been shedding non-core assets to focus on their primary businesses, and lubricants fit that pattern.

Montreal-based Stingray Group (RAY) is paying $175 million to acquire San Francisco-based streaming radio service TuneIn. Streaming audio continues to consolidate as companies look for scale and content libraries.

Deals That Closed

Pfizer (PFE) closed its acquisition of Metsera, Inc. (MTSR), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company working on medicines for obesity and cardiometabolic diseases. This deal ended a dramatic bidding war with Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO). The obesity drug market is exploding right now, and pharmaceutical giants are scrambling to build their pipelines in this space.

But Pfizer isn't done dealing. The pharma giant is also looking to sell its remaining 4.55 million shares in German vaccine maker BioNTech. The price tag could hit $500 million. Pfizer and BioNTech famously partnered on COVID-19 vaccines, but now Pfizer is apparently ready to exit that investment.

Bankruptcy Exit

Purdue Pharma finally won court approval to exit bankruptcy, ending six years of litigation over its multibillion-dollar opioid settlement and the thorny question of the Sackler family's liability releases. Purdue's Chapter 11 plan provides an estimated $7.4 billion to address nationwide opioid harm.

The deal had to be completely renegotiated after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a prior version in 2024 that granted the Sacklers broad legal immunity. Under the revised plan, the family will contribute about $6.5 billion over 15 years. Most of those funds will support opioid abatement initiatives, with roughly $850 million earmarked for individuals and families who were harmed.

Purdue's assets will be transferred to a new public-benefit company called Knoa Pharma, which will focus on addiction treatment and overdose-reversal drugs. It's a somewhat ironic ending for a company that profited from creating opioid addictions—now its successor will treat them.

Purdue filed for bankruptcy in 2019 amid more than 2,600 lawsuits tied to OxyContin and faced over $40 trillion in creditor claims. The company pleaded guilty in 2020 to federal conspiracy and fraud charges related to its opioid marketing. After six years of legal battles, this chapter is finally closed.

Back to News

M&A Madness: Warner Bros., Bill.com, and C3 AI Join Growing Auction Season

MarketDash Editorial Team
23 days ago
A wave of major deals is reshaping the corporate landscape as Bill.com and C3 AI hit the auction block, streaming giants circle Warner Bros. Discovery, and private equity firms hunt for opportunities from packaging to cloud infrastructure.

Fresh Meat on the Auction Block

The deal market is heating up with some notable names going on the selling block. Bill.com (BILL), the business-payments platform, has tapped a financial adviser to run an auction process, according to Bloomberg. This isn't exactly a surprise—activist investor Starboard Value has been circling the company, and Starboard has a reputation for buying stakes in public companies and pushing them toward strategic sales. When activists come knocking, companies tend to listen.

Meanwhile, C3 AI (AI) is also shopping itself around. The timing here is interesting: CEO Tom Siebel just resigned due to health concerns, and Reuters broke the news that the company decided to explore a sale shortly after. Stephen Ehikian has stepped into Siebel's shoes as the new chief executive. Leadership transitions often trigger strategic reviews, and it looks like C3 AI's board decided a sale might be the best path forward.

Clearwater Analytics (CWAN) is having quite the year. Earlier in 2025, the Boise, Idaho-based software company was on the buy side, snapping up SaaS platform Enfusion for $1.5 billion. Now, according to Bloomberg, Clearwater finds itself on the sell side. Sometimes companies make acquisitions to bulk up before their own sale—we'll see if that's the playbook here.

In the hospitality space, London-based real estate investor Quadrum Global has hired Moelis & Co. and Eastdil Secured to field offers for boutique lodging chain Arlo Hotels and the underlying real estate assets. The hotel market has been consolidating steadily, and boutique chains with prime urban locations tend to attract attention from larger operators and real estate investors alike.

Deals in Progress

Private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice is considering a takeover of Sealed Air (SEE), the Charlotte-based packaging company famous for Bubble Wrap and Instapak. The company is valued at $5.35 billion, and its stock jumped over 20% when word of the potential deal leaked out. What makes this particularly interesting is that a takeover could trigger broader M&A activity if Sealed Air's food and protective packaging units get split up and sold separately. The company previously offloaded several divisions to Bain Capital for $3.2 billion back in 2017. According to the Wall Street Journal, this move reflects a broader trend: private equity is returning to industrial and service-sector deals after spending years obsessed with tech.

In the human resources software world, Dayforce (DAY) stockholders approved an acquisition offer from private equity firm Thoma Bravo on November 12. Shareholders will receive $70 per share in cash, and the transaction is expected to close in late 2025 or early 2026. Another one bites the dust in the ongoing wave of take-private deals.

The entertainment industry is where things get really spicy. Paramount Skydance (PSKY), Comcast (CMCSA), and Netflix (NFLX) are all preparing bids for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). Nonbinding first-round offers are due November 20, according to the Wall Street Journal. Paramount's latest bid values Warner Bros. at $23.50 per share—that's nearly 90% above the pre-bid stock price, which tells you how seriously these suitors are taking this auction. Comcast and Netflix are primarily interested in Warner Bros.' movie and TV studios plus the HBO Max streaming service. They explicitly don't want the cable assets like CNN, TNT, and the Discovery Channel, which makes sense given that traditional cable is slowly dying. Warner Bros. Discovery is running a tight auction process and hopes to wrap everything up by year-end.

Over in India, Blackstone (BX) wants to buy a majority stake in Mumbai-based cloud infrastructure firm Neysa Networks. SoftBank is also considering taking a minority position, per Bloomberg. Cloud infrastructure continues to be one of the hottest sectors for dealmaking, especially in high-growth markets like India.

Private equity firm Clearlake Capital Group is making a big move by acquiring investment manager Pathway Capital Management for nearly $1 billion. The Wall Street Journal expects this deal to roughly double Clearlake's assets under management to $185 billion. Pathway, based in Irvine, California, manages about $95 billion in assets, primarily for institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals. This acquisition positions Clearlake just below the top 10 private equity firms by assets—not a bad place to be.

In the luxury fashion space, private equity firm Permira wants to sell luxury sneaker maker Golden Goose. Permira bought a majority stake back in 2020 from Carlyle, and now it's looking for an exit. HongShan Capital Group is reportedly interested, with Reuters pegging the deal at around $3 billion. Premium sneakers have become a surprisingly hot asset class.

Reuters also provided an update on the Castrol lubricants unit of BP (BP). Private equity firms One Rock and Stonepeak have both submitted offers. Energy companies have been shedding non-core assets to focus on their primary businesses, and lubricants fit that pattern.

Montreal-based Stingray Group (RAY) is paying $175 million to acquire San Francisco-based streaming radio service TuneIn. Streaming audio continues to consolidate as companies look for scale and content libraries.

Deals That Closed

Pfizer (PFE) closed its acquisition of Metsera, Inc. (MTSR), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company working on medicines for obesity and cardiometabolic diseases. This deal ended a dramatic bidding war with Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO). The obesity drug market is exploding right now, and pharmaceutical giants are scrambling to build their pipelines in this space.

But Pfizer isn't done dealing. The pharma giant is also looking to sell its remaining 4.55 million shares in German vaccine maker BioNTech. The price tag could hit $500 million. Pfizer and BioNTech famously partnered on COVID-19 vaccines, but now Pfizer is apparently ready to exit that investment.

Bankruptcy Exit

Purdue Pharma finally won court approval to exit bankruptcy, ending six years of litigation over its multibillion-dollar opioid settlement and the thorny question of the Sackler family's liability releases. Purdue's Chapter 11 plan provides an estimated $7.4 billion to address nationwide opioid harm.

The deal had to be completely renegotiated after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a prior version in 2024 that granted the Sacklers broad legal immunity. Under the revised plan, the family will contribute about $6.5 billion over 15 years. Most of those funds will support opioid abatement initiatives, with roughly $850 million earmarked for individuals and families who were harmed.

Purdue's assets will be transferred to a new public-benefit company called Knoa Pharma, which will focus on addiction treatment and overdose-reversal drugs. It's a somewhat ironic ending for a company that profited from creating opioid addictions—now its successor will treat them.

Purdue filed for bankruptcy in 2019 amid more than 2,600 lawsuits tied to OxyContin and faced over $40 trillion in creditor claims. The company pleaded guilty in 2020 to federal conspiracy and fraud charges related to its opioid marketing. After six years of legal battles, this chapter is finally closed.