Paramount Skydance is offering $108.4 billion in a hostile bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. The offer, made on Monday, is the brand’s latest and largest attempt to outbid streaming giant Netflix for the legacy media network. Paramount says it will offer about $30 per share for the company, an increase over Netflix’s proposed $27.75 per share. On Friday, Dec. 5, Warner Bros. Discovery announced it had accepted Netflix’s $72 billion offer. The deal would give the streamer Warner Bros. Discovery’s TV, film, and streaming assets, but Paramount’s new offer ups the ante, including prominent premium network HBO, DC Comics, and news network CNN, among other inclusions.
The “hostile bid” — a takeover offer that bypasses management in favor of shareholders — takes the noteworthy bidding war from private to public.
About the Buyers
Larry Ellison, Oracle co-founder and one of the world’s wealthiest people, took over Paramount earlier this year with the help of his son David. The latter is the founder of Skydance Media, the parent company of Paramount Studios, CBS, and more. David Ellison spoke more about their efforts to reshape the media landscape in a new statement:
“WBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer for their shares in the entire company. Our public offer, which is on the same terms we provided to the Warner Bros. Discovery Board of Directors in private, provides superior value, and a more certain and quicker path to completion. We believe the WBD Board of Directors is pursuing an inferior proposal which exposes shareholders to a mix of cash and stock, an uncertain future trading value of the Global Networks linear cable business and a challenging regulatory approval process. We are taking our offer directly to shareholders to give them the opportunity to act in their own best interests and maximize the value of their shares.”
The Ellisons’ ties to U.S. President Donald Trump are worth noting. Larry Ellison has long been a donor and loyal supporter of the sitting U.S. president, a relationship that’s raising concerns among some politicians, entertainment industry figures, and antitrust experts. A colossal deal such as this is normally subject to intense scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The second Trump administration’s inconsistent “America First” approach to antitrust activity could reshape what were once standard government procedures.
What’s more, a new SEC filing from Paramount (via Fortune) shows Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners private equity firm — one of three groups that just picked up gaming company Electronic Arts — is involved in the new bid alongside Saudi and Qatari sovereign wealth funds.
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