\n\t\t\t\t\tDavid Ellison unveils new offer for media empire which is $18 billion (A$27b) higher than the Netflix proposal.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Paramount has launched a hostile bid to acquire Warner Bros Discovery, in competition with moves by Netflix.<\/p>\n
The company has submitted an all-cash bid for $US30 ($45) per share, challenging the deal between WBD and Netflix announced last week. Paramount said its deal offer for WBD would close within 12 months, compared with Netflix\u2019s projected 12-18 months for completing its deal. The offer values the entertainment giant at $US108.4 billion (A$163.6b) \u2013 $18 billion (A$27b) higher than the Netflix proposal.<\/p>\n
The offer paves the way for a battle between Paramount \u2014 whose owner, Larry Ellison, is an ally of Donald Trump \u2014 and streaming behemoth Netflix.<\/p>\n
Unlike Netflix\u2019s offer, Paramount\u2019s latest bid includes cable channels such as CNN, TNT, TBS and Discovery.<\/p>\n
Paramount in a statement called Netflix\u2019s bid, which values Warner Bros studios at nearly $US83 billion, \u201cinferior and uncertain.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer,\u201d chairman and CEO of Paramount, David Ellison said.<\/p>\n
Paramount argued its deal provided greater regulatory certainty than the Netflix transaction, which it said would give Netflix a 43 per cent share of global streaming subscribers and face \u201cprotracted regulatory challenges across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The combined company would unite Paramount\u2019s portfolio \u2014 including Paramount Pictures, CBS, Nickelodeon and Paramount+ \u2014 with WBD\u2019s assets including HBO Max and major sports rights.<\/p>\n
Paramount said the merger would generate more than $US6 billion in cost savings while maintaining theatrical releases and increased content spending.<\/p>\n
On Monday Paramount pledged to release more than 30 films in cinemas if it wins WBD \u2014 a clear swipe at Netflix, which historically has displayed an antipathy to theatrical distribution.<\/p>\n
The proposal would put the properties under the ownership of a company with close ties to the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
Trump weighed in on Sunday, saying Netflix\u2019s effort to acquire Warner Bros \u201ccould be a problem\u201d as it would be left with a huge market share of the film and TV industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really here to finish what we started,\u201d David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount, told CNBC as his company made a sixth offer for Warner Bros since the bidding war began.<\/p>\n
Paramount+ and HBO Max combined would have approximately 200 million global subscribers, \u201cwhich puts us on par with Disney,\u201d Ellison said on an investor call. That\u2019s significantly below Netflix and HBO Max together with more than 400 million, according to Ellison. \u201cSo again, we really view this as, our deal is completely pro-competitive. It\u2019s pro-creative talent, pro-consumer, as opposed to the [Warner Bros.] combination with Netflix [which] would give them such a scale that it would be bad for Hollywood and bad for the consumer, and is anticompetitive in every way that you can fundamentally look at it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Paramount is also offering a $5 billion breakup fee if its WBD deal is accepted but is not completed because for regulatory reasons.<\/p>\n
Source: ABC<\/a>, Variety<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Ellison unveils new offer for media empire which is $18 billion (A$27b) higher than the Netflix proposal.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-336020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}