Paramount has launched a hostile cash bid for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), offering $30 per share directly to shareholders — the same proposal WBD’s board rejected last week, and higher than Netflix’s $27.75-per-share cash offer. Paramount’s bid explicitly covers the entire company, while Netflix last week reportedly won an auction for Warner Bros. film studio and HBO Max as part of a roughly $72 billion package that would exclude WBD’s TV networks. #WarnerBrosDiscovery #Paramount #Netflix
Paramount says keeping WBD intact serves its shareholders’ interests and argues a full-company deal would clear regulators more quickly than Netflix’s plan because of its smaller scale; the company also points to a reportedly friendlier stance from the Biden administration’s successor (cited in the source) as a factor in regulatory timing. Antitrust concerns have been raised about Netflix’s proposal, given the potential combination of the leading and a major streaming platform, an issue President Donald Trump said could pose “a problem.”
Paramount CEO David Ellison said: “WBD shareholders deserve the opportunity to consider our higher all-cash offer for their shares across the company. Our public offer, on the same terms we presented privately to the Warner Bros. Discovery board, provides higher value and a more certain and faster path to closing.” The offer is backed by capital from the Ellison family and RedBird Capital and by $54 billion of debt commitments from Bank of America, Citi and Apollo Global Management. #FiatNews