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2h ago

Paramount Skydance Launches Hostile $30-a-Share Bid for Warner Bros. Discovery

Warner’s board will review the proposal without revising its recommendation for Netflix’s agreement.

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Oracle's Larry Ellison and executive producer David Ellison arrive at the LA premiere of "Star Trek Into Darkness" at The Dolby Theater on Tuesday, May 14, 2013 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Invision/AP)
(L-R:) Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav; Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison.
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Overview

  • The all-cash offer values WBD at $108.4 billion including debt and covers the entire company, unlike Netflix’s deal for the studios, HBO and HBO Max.
  • Paramount has opened a formal tender at $30 per share with a shareholder response deadline of Jan. 8, 2026, after WBD initially rejected similar terms.
  • Netflix’s agreement, worth about $72 billion in equity or $82.7 billion including debt, is contingent on WBD spinning off its linear cable networks into a separate company.
  • Paramount disclosed financing from the Ellison family, Middle East sovereign wealth funds, RedBird Capital and Affinity Partners, alongside large bank debt commitments.
  • Both paths face heavy antitrust scrutiny as President Trump said the Netflix-WBD combination "could be a problem," while markets reacted with WBD shares rising and Netflix slipping.