Paramount Skydance on Monday launched a hostile, $108.4 billion bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), days after Warner agreed to be acquired by Netflix for $82.7 billion.
Paramount is going straight to WBD’s shareholders with an all-cash offer of $30 per share, and it noted that its offer provides shareholders $18 billion more cash than the Netflix deal, which offered $23.25 in cash and $4.50 in Netflix shares for a total of $27.75 per share.
Paramount is bidding for all of WBD, while Netflix’s deal with the company only includes its Hollywood studios and streaming business.
CNBC reported on Monday that these were the very terms from Paramount that WBD’s board rejected a week ago.
“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,” Paramount CEO David Ellison said in a statement.
Paramount’s offer is backstopped with equity financing from the Ellison family and the private-equity firm RedBird Capital, in addition to $54 billion of debt commitments from Bank of America, Citi, and Apollo.
Netflix came out on top on Friday after winning a bidding war against Paramount and Comcast, but Paramount’s hostile bid is sure to drag on the battle for one of Hollywood’s most iconic studios, a fight which has already stretched out for months.
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Netflix’s proposed deal has already raised antitrust questions, as it would combine two of the most popular streaming platforms into one. Additionally, President Donald Trump has said the deal “could be a problem” because of the size of the combined companies’ market share.
A deal between WBD and Paramount would also likely raise similar concerns.
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