Paramount is launching a hostile bid to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery after it lost out to Netflix last week, the company announced Monday.
“We’re confident that once shareholders have the opportunity to choose for themselves, they’ll choose Paramount,” CEO David Ellison said on a call with investors Monday morning.
Paramount is making an all-cash $30-per-share offer to Warner Bros. Discovery, equating to a total value of more than $108 billion — far more than the $82.7 billion tentative agreement that Netflix announced Friday. In Paramount’s announcement Monday, Ellison said the company’s offer “provides superior value, and a more certain and quicker path to completion,” than Netflix’s.
The Paramount offer is to acquire all of Warner Bros. Discovery, which includes several cable news and sports networks, while the Netflix agreement is only for the company’s streaming and studios businesses, which include HBO and HBO Max.
Spokespeople for Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment from MS NOW.
Paramount’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows that President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and the nations of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are helping to finance the deal. Those investors were not mentioned in the Paramount press release.
Paramount said Monday that it had submitted six proposals over the past three months but that “WBD never engaged meaningfully.” Paramount is making its current bid directly to the company’s shareholders and board of directors, Ellison said.
The Netflix agreement brought some pushback in Hollywood: Actress Jane Fonda called it “catastrophic” and “an alarming escalation of the consolidation that threatens the entire entertainment industry, the democrat public it serves, and the First Amendment itself.”
An anonymous group of “concerned feature film producers” sent a letter to Congress objecting to the deal, alleging that it could “destroy” theatrical releases of films because they could instead go to Netflix or HBO Max first, Variety reported. The Writers Guild of America, the union that represents the writers of many entertainment programs, said in a statement that the proposed deal with Netflix “would eliminate jobs, push down wages, worsen conditions for all entertainment workers, raise prices for consumers, and reduce the volume and diversity of content for all viewers.”
Ellison said Paramount’s proposal would “create a stronger Hollywood.”
“It is in the best interests of the creative community, consumers and the movie theater industry,” he added. “We believe they will benefit from the enhanced competition, higher content spend and theatrical release output, and a greater number of movies in theaters as a result of our proposed transaction.”
If Warner Bros. ends up moving forward with Paramount’s deal, the company will have to pay Netflix a $2.8 billion breakup fee, according to the Friday filing with the SEC.
Trump on Sunday said that he would be “involved” in the approval process for Netflix’s proposed purchase and that he had met with Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, in the Oval Office last week. On Truth Social after the announcement Monday morning, Trump attacked Paramount over a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday night in which Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., talked about her split with MAGA and her decision to resign. “THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP,” Trump wrote of Paramount. “Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!” Paramount owns the CBS television network and CBS News. Trump’s post did not specifically refer to Paramount’s proposal to take over Warner Bros. Discovery. Spokespeople for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from MS NOW about the bid on Monday morning. Paramount leaders say their deal will be subject to an “expeditious regulatory” process. “We’ve had great conversations with the president about this, but I don’t want to speak for him,” Ellison said on CNBC Monday.
Julianne McShane is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. Recommended
