{"id":212141,"date":"2025-12-30T22:48:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T22:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/212141\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T22:48:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T22:48:09","slug":"warner-bros-likely-to-reject-paramounts-latest-hostile-bid-source-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/212141\/","title":{"rendered":"Warner Bros likely to reject Paramount’s latest hostile bid, source says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Dawn Chmielewski<\/p>\n

Dec 30 (Reuters) – Warner Bros Discovery will likely reject Paramount Skydance’s amended $108.4 billion hostile bid for the storied Hollywood studio despite a personal \u200bguarantee from billionaire Larry Ellison backing the media giant’s offer, according to a \u200cperson familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

The board has yet to make a final decision, but is expected to meet \u200cnext week, said the person, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.<\/p>\n

Warner Bros and Paramount declined to comment on the board’s position, reported earlier by CNBC.<\/p>\n

The decision could keep Warner Bros on track to pursue a rival cash-and-stock deal with Netflix<\/a> despite Paramount’s attempt to sweeten its \u2060offer.<\/p>\n

Ellison, whose son David is \u200cchairman and CEO of Paramount, personally guaranteed the equity underpinning the bid, hoping to ease doubts that had dogged its earlier proposal.<\/p>\n

The company \u200ddid not increase its $30-per-share all-cash offer, but it raised its regulatory reverse termination fee to match Netflix and extended its tender offer deadline.<\/p>\n

Netflix’s $82.7 billion offer, while lower in headline value, offers a clearer \u200bfinancing structure and fewer execution risks, analysts have said.<\/p>\n

Under terms of that agreement, Warner \u200cBros would face a $2.8 billion breakup fee if it walks away from the Netflix deal.<\/p>\n

Harris Oakmark, Warner Bros’ fifth largest investor with 96 million shares, said the revised offer wasn’t “sufficient,” and noted that it was not enough to cover the breakup fee.<\/p>\n

Paramount has argued its bid would face fewer regulatory obstacles. A combined Paramount-Warner Bros entity would create a studio \u2060larger than industry leader Disney<\/a> and merge two \u200bmajor television operators.<\/p>\n

Warner Bros’ board previously urged shareholders to \u200breject Paramount’s $108.4 billion bid for the entire company, including its cable television assets, citing concerns over financing certainty and the absence of a full \u200dguarantee from the Ellison \u2060family.<\/p>\n

Paramount has argued its offer is more market-proof than Netflix’s $82.7 billion proposal, whose value has fluctuated with Netflix’s share price.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers from both parties have raised concerns about \u2060further consolidation in the media industry. U.S. President Donald Trump has said he plans to weigh in on \u200cthe landmark acquisition.<\/p>\n

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Dawn Kopecki, \u200cKrishna Chandra Eluri, Anil D’Silva and David Gregorio)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Dawn Chmielewski Dec 30 (Reuters) – Warner Bros Discovery will likely reject Paramount Skydance’s amended $108.4 billion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,7041,400,4523,411,2223,9483],"class_list":{"0":"post-212141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-larry-ellison","12":"tag-netflix","13":"tag-paramount","14":"tag-tv","15":"tag-warner-bros","16":"tag-warner-bros-discovery"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}