Paramount is launching a hostile bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery after the company lost to Netflix in a high-stakes bidding war, the company announced Monday.
Paramount said it would offer $30 per share for the media conglomerate, which owns the Warner Bros. film studio, the cable channel HBO, the streaming service HBO Max and a portfolio of cable brands.
The bid comes after Netflix agreed last week to buy a large part of Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets for $27.75 per share. Netflix’s takeover would not include the Warner-owned cable channels.
The offer sets up what could be a public and contentious battle for Warner Bros., a process that had already included appeals to President Donald Trump, who said he intends to play a role in any merger.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s board of directors has already approved its deal with Netflix, but Paramount’s move to go directly to shareholders — a manuever known in the business world as a hostile bid — will push what had been private negotiations into the public realm.
In a news release, Paramount said its offer to Warner Bros. shareholders “provides a superior alternative to the Netflix transaction,” warning that a deal with the streaming giant risks entangling the studio in a complex regulatory process.
“WBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer for their shares in the entire company,” Paramount CEO David Ellison said in a statement.
“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,” Ellison added.
Ellison acquired Paramount earlier this year in an $8 billion deal that housed the studio’s assets under his company Skydance. He is the son of Larry Ellison, a billionaire technology magnate with close ties to Trump.
Unlike Netflix’s bid, Paramount’s offer would be a all cash, backstopped by the Ellison family’s fortune. The company also said it has a $54 billion funding commitment from Bank of America, Citi and private equity firm Apollo Global. The total value of the deal would be more than $108 billion.
“We’re really here to to finish what we started,” Ellison told CNBC shortly after announcing the bid.
“When you combine the number one streamer with the number three streamer, that creates a company that has unprecedented market power, north of 400 million subscribers,” Ellison said. “The next largest competitor is Disney, with just under 200 million. That’s bad for Hollywood.”
“We believe we have the superior offer, we’re taking that directly to shareholders and we think that’s what they’re going to vote for,” Ellison said.
On Sunday, Trump said Netflix buying Warner Bros. could be an antitrust “problem.” He added that he will “be involved” in the approval process for that deal.
Trump also said that Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos had recently visited him in the Oval Office to discuss the deal, but made no promises.
Asked about the president on CNBC, Ellison said that he’s “incredibly grateful for the relations that I have with the president.” Ellison added that he believes Trump “believes in competition.”
In a social media post published just minutes after Paramount announced its hostile bid, Trump blasted the company over Sunday’s installment of “60 Minutes,” which featured an interview with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a firebrand conservative who has become a fierce critic of the president.
“My real problem with the show, however, wasn’t the low IQ traitor, it was that the new ownership of 60 Minutes, Paramount, would allow a show like this to air,” Trump wrote. “THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP, who just paid me millions of Dollars for FAKE REPORTING about your favorite President, ME! Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!”
Trump was referring to the $16 million Paramount paid to settle a lawsuit from Trump over an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris that aired in the lead-up to the 2024 election. Trump accused CBS of having deceptively edited the segment — a claim the network denied.
CBS News did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s post.
Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery jumped about 6% at the opening of trading, while Netflix shares fell 1.3% and Paramount shares advanced about 4%.