Overview
- Paramount offered $30 per share in cash for the entire Warner Bros. Discovery, valuing the company at $108.4 billion and explicitly including TV networks such as CNN.
- Paramount said the proposal is backed by the Ellison family and RedBird Capital with $54 billion of committed debt from Bank of America, Citi and Apollo.
- The offer is roughly $18 billion richer than Netflix’s earlier approach, which combined cash and Netflix stock and targeted only the studios and streaming assets including HBO.
- CEO David Ellison urged WBD shareholders to consider the all-cash bid, criticized the board for pursuing a lower offer, and took the proposal directly to investors.
- Unnamed sources said Warner Bros. Discovery recently rejected the same terms, while separate reporting notes antitrust concerns have been raised about a potential Netflix tie-up.