{"id":265139,"date":"2026-02-03T07:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T07:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/265139\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T07:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T07:32:10","slug":"the-takeover-battle-for-warner-bros-discovery-is-coming-to-a-head-for-paramount-skydance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/265139\/","title":{"rendered":"The takeover battle for Warner Bros. Discovery is coming to a head for Paramount Skydance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cTime to put up or shut up\u201d for David Ellison<\/a> if he wants to own the Warner Bros. Discovery media empire \u2013 and he\u2019s got a couple of weeks to decide.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the message coming from WBD\u2019s mercurial CEO David Zaslav, according to sources close to the company, after WBD on Monday filed an amended proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange\u00a0Commission, indicating to Wall Street it believes that it\u2019s on track to hold an expedited shareholder vote to approve Netflix\u2019s $72 billion acquisition<\/a> of WBD\u2019s Warner Bros. studio and HBO Max streaming service.<\/p>\n

Specifically, WBD believes the vote will get approvals from the SEC in the coming days, clearing the way for a vote later this month or early next month. That means Ellison\u2019s media company, Paramount Skydance, had better get in front of WBD shareholders with a sweetened bid \u2013 and fast, sources close to WBD say.<\/p>\n

WBD believes the vote will get approvals from the SEC in the coming days, clearing the way for a vote later this month or early next month. That means David Ellison\u2019s Paramount Skydance, had better come up with a sweetened bid. Zuffa LLC<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on the way things are moving, they have about two weeks to make a counter bid, their eighth one at this point,\u201d said a senior WBD executive who spoke on the condition of anonymity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they fail to make a compelling counter bid, this will be Netflix\u2019s company because shareholders won\u2019t reject a guaranteed $27.75 a share,\u201d the source added. \u201cRemember, the proxy will be a vote to approve Netflix owning WBD \u2013 not a choice between Paramount or Netflix that is unless they make another offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCharles Gasparino<\/p>\n

As The Post previously reported,\u00a0Zas began forcing Ellison\u2019s hand to sweeten his $78 billion, $30 a share \u201chostile\u201d bid<\/a> for the whole company two weeks ago, when he filed paperwork for an expedited \u201cproxy\u201d or\u00a0 shareholder vote to approve Netflix\u2019s $72 billion deal for the studio and streamer, which WBD\u2019s board prefers.<\/p>\n

Then on Monday, WBD announced that the expedited vote is now fully in motion as it filed the amended proxy statement with the SEC.\u00a0It\u2019s all a bid to further pressure Paramount Skydance \u2013 both David and his father, the billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, and their deal collaborators at RedBird Capital to come to the table with more money or go home,\u00a0The Post has learned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav is driving a hard bargain, looking for as much as an extra $4 a share from Paramount, according to people close to the negotiations. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

An SEC spokesman had no immediate comment about the time of its proxy approval, but the filing comes as the WBD-Netflix deal faces increased regulatory scrutiny, including a Senate hearing on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for Paramount Skydance had no immediate comment; a WBD rep had no comment outside of confirming the release of the revised proxy. A Netflix rep declined to comment. <\/p>\n

Zas is driving a hard bargain, looking for as much as an extra $4 a share from Paramount, according to people close to the negotiations. That\u2019s on top of paying up front the $2.8 billion break-up fee WBD is on the hook for if it walks away from Netflix.<\/p>\n

Zas is also demanding that Larry Ellison, currently worth $206 billion based on his holdings of Oracle stock, to personally back up tens of billions in debt he\u2019s using in his bid, much like he\u2019s doing with his personal guarantee of $40 billion in equity that is in his son\u2019s offer.<\/p>\n

The filing comes as the WBD-Netflix deal faces increased regulatory scrutiny, including a Senate hearing on Tuesday. REUTERS<\/p>\n

But Ellison\u2019s first personal guarantee came before his net worth took a sharp turn downward, a nearly $200 billion decline based on his Oracle holdings in recent months. People inside WBD speculate that\u2019s the main reason why Paramount Skydance has been unwilling to nudge on its $78 billion offer.<\/p>\n

Paramount Skydance denies that Ellison\u2019s money woes are to blame, pointing out he\u2019s still enormously rich, while contending their offer for the entire company is still far superior to Netflix\u2019s deal, which relies on a separate and highly speculative sale of WBD\u2019s cable assets (CNN, TNT, Discovery) to push it above $30 a share.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCharlie Gasparino has his finger on the pulse of where business, politics and finance meet\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up to receive On The Money by Charlie Gasparino in your inbox every Thursday.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

PSKY also notes that Netflix must\u00a0convince skeptical regulators in the US and abroad<\/a> that the combination of its own No. 1 streaming service, with WBD\u2019s No. 3 most popular, HBO Max, doesn\u2019t violate antitrust laws.<\/p>\n

Netflix has been meeting with regulators in the US, the UK and the EU, arguing that it faces enormous competition for social media including YouTube and that the customer overlap between Netflix and HBO Max subscribers is significant \u2013 more than 80%.<\/p>\n

The charm offensive has picked up in recent days in preparation for a Tuesday hearing on the deal by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee chaired by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah. Lee, a Republican, has said the deal presents \u201ca lot of antitrust red flags.\u201d Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos will testify at tomorrow\u2019s hearings as well as a rep for WBD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cTime to put up or shut up\u201d for David Ellison if he wants to own the Warner Bros.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[138,16650,156,15006,1073,86071,1094,111,139,69,72420,421,437,3204],"class_list":{"0":"post-265139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-david-zaslav","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-larry-ellison","12":"tag-media","13":"tag-mergers-acquisitions","14":"tag-netflix","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-on-the-money","19":"tag-paramount","20":"tag-tv","21":"tag-warner-bros-discovery"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}