Exclusive: Versant not likely to buy Skydance cable networks, CEO Mark Lazarus says

Versant is not a likely buyer of Skydance's cable networks, CEO Mark Lazarus told Axios at its annual Media Trends Live event in New York City on Tuesday.Why it matters: Versant spun out of Comcast earlier this year and has already started to acquire some new properties as a standalone company.What he's saying: "Buying more cable assets on a large scale would prolong our life but not necessarily make our life better because we still have the secular decline," he said."But just buying big networks or a bunch of networks that don't necessarily change our trajectory is probably not in our short-term future."Versant is instead focusing on diversifying its revenue "in adjacent businesses that are incredibly powerful consumer branded networks as an amplifier and create bigger businesses," like golf.Catch up quick: Lazarus said the company's initial strategy post-spinout is to look for opportunistic M&A alongside its existing businesses.Versant's properties include business news in CNBC, political news and opinion with MS NOW, sports and entertainment brands like USA and Syfy, as well as movie ticketing business Fandango.Wall Street has speculated that Skydance could sell some assets as …

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