Paramount Skydance have launched a hostile bid for Warner Bros. and are taking it straight to shareholders in an attempt to derail the announced takeover by Netflix. This is following the announcement last week by the Movie and TV giant saying that they had won the auction over both Sky and Paramount and were taking over Warner Bros. in its entirety including all of their game studios as well as HBO, HBO Max and ownership of franchises such as Batman and Harry Potter.
The offer by Netflix was worth $72 billion, which equated to 27.75 dollars (£20.81) per share of the company. Now Paramount are suggesting that they will be taking an offer straight to the investors of Warner Bros. for $30 (£22.50) a share in cash and asking them to reject Netflix’s deal. According to an article on Sky News “Paramount said it was making a “strategically and financially compelling offer to WBD shareholders” and a “superior alternative to the Netflix transaction”.
Per the report on Sky News:
“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.”
David Ellison, Chairman and CEO of Paramount
We reported last week on the successful bid by Netflix to take over Warner Bros. in its entirety, but now it seems like it may not be such a done deal. Apparently President Trump himself has weighed in on the situation saying that the combined market share of the resulting company “could be a problem” and that he wants to be involved personally in decisions to approve the deal. You can read the full article on the Netflix takeover here.
We will of course keep you updated on any developments on this story when we have them.
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