Paramount Skydance on December 8 made a hostile bid worth $108.40 billion for Warner Bros. Discovery, in a last-ditch effort to outbid Netflix. The streaming platform had emerged victorious on December 5 in a bidding war with Paramount and Comcast, that spanned some weeks. Netflix secured a $72 billion equity deal for Warner Bros. Discovery’s TV, film studios and streaming assets.
Paramount’s new bid means that the battle for Warner Bros. and its prized HBO and DC Comics assets will not conclude soon.
Paramount’s $30-per-share cash offer includes financing from Affinity Partners, the investment firm run by Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, the Saudi and Qatari sovereign wealth funds, and L’imad Holding Co., owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, and is backstopped by the Ellison family. Larry Ellison, the world’s second-richest person, is the father of Paramount head David Ellison and he has close ties to the White House.
According to Paramount, its bid is superior to Netflix’s bid and would provide shareholders $18 billion more in cash and an easier path to regulatory approval. It argued that Paramount-Warner combination would be in the best interest of the creative community, movie theatres and consumers, who would benefit from enhanced competition. While Paramount’s bid includes Warner Bros. Discovery’s cable television properties, Netflix’s bid is limited to Warner Bros.’ film and TV studios, HBO and the HBO Max streaming service.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump on December 7 said that the deal struck by Netflix to buy Warner Bros. could be a problem because of the size of the combined market share. He added that he would be involved in the decision about whether the federal government should approve the $72 billion deal or not.
