Paramount launches a hostile $108 billion bid to grab Warner Bros from Netflix
Paramount Global launched an all-cash hostile tender offer valued at $108.4 billion to acquire Warner Bros.
Discovery on Monday, positioning the bid as a direct challenge to Netflix's agreement to buy parts of the media company.
The offer, backed by Skydance Media, prices Warner Bros. Discovery shares at $30 each and covers the entire company, including its film and television studios, streaming service HBO Max, and cable networks such as CNN, TNT, and HGTV.
Paramount set the tender offer to expire at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on January 8, 2026, unless extended, and took the proposal straight to Warner Bros.
Discovery shareholders after the company's board opted for Netflix's deal. Netflix reached an agreement last Friday to purchase Warner Bros.
Discovery's studios and streaming assets for $27.75 per share, or an equity value of $72 billion, with plans to spin off the cable networks into a separate entity.
That transaction includes $23.25 in cash and $4.50 in stock per share, carrying an enterprise value of $82.7 billion.
Paramount described its own bid as superior because it delivers $18 billion more in cash, avoids stock volatility, and promises a faster close with lower regulatory hurdles, given it encompasses all assets without requiring a spinoff.
Paramount had earlier submitted a $30-per-share all-cash bid privately to Warner Bros.
Discovery's board, which the company said matched the terms of the public offer.
Warner Bros. Discovery shares climbed above $25 in trading following the announcements, more than doubling from $12.54 in mid-September when merger talks surfaced.
Paramount chief executive 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.”
Netflix co-chief executive Ted Sarandos said, “We've signed our deal and we are running full speed towards regulatory approval.”
Paramount's legal advisers at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan sent a letter to Warner Bros. Discovery leadership accusing the board of abandoning a fair process.
The bid follows Paramount's own merger with Skydance earlier this year and arrives amid broader consolidation in the entertainment sector, where streaming services face pressure from rising content costs and subscriber competition.
