&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Paramount hijacks Netflix deal, launches $108.4 billion hostile bid for Warner Bros Discovery")
Paramount Skydance on Monday shocked the audience by launching a hostile takeover of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) with a bid worth US$108.4 billion. This step is said to directly challenge Netflix’s recent US$72 billion equity deal for the studio’s key entertainment assets.
As reported by Reuters, this unexpected move of an all-cash tender offer of US$30 per share is Paramount’s boldest effort yet to derail Netflix’s acquisition.
About Netflix's deal
On Friday, Netflix was marked as the front-runner following its win in the weeks-long bidding battle that involved Paramount and Comcast. The streaming giant agreed to take over WBD’s film studios, TV libraries, and HBO Max operations, valuing the deal at US$82.7 billion, including debt. If regulatory approval failed, they would offer a US$5.8 billion breakup fee.
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But after Paramount’s latest bid, which is significantly larger in enterprise value and targeting the entire company, including WBD's television networks such as CNN, TNT, and TBS, puts the earlier settled deal into uncertainty.
Reportedly, Paramount stated that it had submitted multiple proposals for WBD since September, but allegedly its offers were ignored.
In a letter to WBD’s board, Paramount accused the company of abandoning a fair bidding process and predetermining Netflix as the winner. Claims were also made that WBD executives had described Netflix’s bid as a “slam dunk” while downplaying Paramount’s offer.
Announcing the maneuver, Paramount chairman and CEO David Ellison said, “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.”
What are the concerns?
Both of these potential outcomes have some antitrust implications. As per reports, US President Donald Trump highlighted that the Netflix-WBD merger could raise market share concerns and indicated he would have a say on the deal. According to Bloomberg, earlier, Trump met Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos in November, stating that WBD should sell to the highest bidder.
Netflix’s bid has already drawn a lot of backlash over fears of job cuts and future subscription price hikes.
