Paramount is not at all happy that Netflix has struck a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) for $82.7 billion. Now, Paramount is making a hostile takeover bid for WBD. It is making its offer directly to WBD shareholders with an all-cash offer of $30 per share that expires on Jan. 8.
Late last week, the WBD board unanimously accepted Netflix’s offer of $27.75 per share. This breaks down to $23.25 per share in cash and $4.50 per share in Netflix stock. Netflix’s bid totals $82.7 billion, while Paramount’s bid totals $108.4 billion.
There is one significant difference when it comes to the Paramount offer, as it is for the entire WBD. The latter plans to be split into two companies next year. Netflix only wants the streaming and studio side of WBD’s business, which includes HBO Max and Warner Bros. film, TV and game studios.
Paramount oversees the entire affair, including WBD’s cable channels (Global Networks). “WBD’s board of directors’ recommendation of a Netflix transaction over Paramount’s offering is based on a misleading prospective valuation of the global network, not supported by business fundamentals and influenced by the high level of financial leverage assigned to the entity,” Paramount said in a press release on Monday.
As of the end of September, WBD had gross loans of $34.5 billion. It planned to take over most of these as Global Networks Company (aka Discovery Global). The Paramount offer includes $40.7 billion in financing from the family of Paramount CEO David Ellison – his father is Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison – and Redbird Capital, but it will have to take on more debt to secure a deal for WBD. The bid “includes $54 billion of loan commitments from Bank of America, Citi and Apollo.” (Apollo owns a majority stake in Engadget’s parent company Yahoo).
According to SEC filings [PDF]Other entities supporting the Paramount bid include Jared Kushner’s investment firm Affinity Partners and the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia (Public Investment Fund), Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Tencent was a financing partner in the previous Paramount offer, but it is not involved in the hostile takeover attempt.
In a letter sent to WBD CEO David Zazlav before the company accepted Netflix’s offer, Paramount questioned the “fairness and adequacy” of the sale process. It asked whether WBD was acting in the best interests of shareholders after the management team reportedly appeared to favor Netflix’s offer.
Paramount said, “Despite Paramount submitting six offers over the course of 12 weeks, WBD never meaningfully engaged with these offers, which we believe provide the best outcome for WBD shareholders.” “Paramount has now taken its proposal directly to WBD shareholders and its board of directors to ensure they have the opportunity to pursue this clearly superior alternative.”
Paramount — which Skydance bought this year for $8 billion — also claims its offer could face less regulatory scrutiny than the Netflix offer, which won’t close until sometime in 2026 after WBD splits into two parts. cnbcParamount executives believe the company’s small size and warm relationship with the Trump administration will help streamline the regulatory process. Over the weekend, President Donald Trump said that Netflix’s bid for WBD “will have to go through a process, and we’ll see what happens. But it’s a big market share. That could be a problem.”
Updated Dec. 8, 2025, 11:14am ET: Added details about the involvement of sovereign wealth funds and Affinity Partners.
<a href