Overview
- Paramount Skydance pushed its $30-per-share hostile tender deadline to Feb. 20 and filed preliminary proxy materials to solicit votes against the Netflix transaction.
- Only about 168.5 million WBD shares have been tendered so far out of roughly 2.48 billion outstanding, underscoring the uphill fight for Paramount’s offer.
- Netflix’s revised bid is an all-cash $27.75 per share for WBD’s studios and streaming, funded with about $20 billion in cash and roughly $52 billion in debt, and includes assuming about $10.7 billion of WBD net debt.
- WBD’s board unanimously backs the Netflix deal, says more than 93% of shareholders have rejected Paramount’s approach, and highlights a shareholder vote expected by spring following the planned Discovery Global spin-off.
- Both proposals face intensive antitrust review, with the DOJ and European regulators issuing second requests, as Paramount argues the Discovery Global debt load could reduce the Netflix deal’s effective payout and touts financing led by Larry Ellison and major banks.