Paramount is refusing to accept defeat in the Warner Bros. Discovery auction; it said Monday that it was launching a $78-billion hostile takeover of its rival after being spurned last week in the bidding.<\/p>\n
The move comes four days after Warner\u2019s board unanimously selected Netflix as the winner. <\/p>\n
Netflix had offered $72 billion \u2014 or $27.75 a share \u2014 for a big chunk of the company: Warner Bros. film and television studios, the expansive lot in Burbank and HBO and HBO Max. Additionally, Netflix would take on more than $10 billion in Warner Bros. debt for a total deal value of $82.7 billion.<\/p>\n
Paramount, backed by the billionaire Larry Ellison family, had entered the final week of the auction with a $25 a share all-cash offer for all of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to people involved in the auction who were not authorized to comment. In the final hours, Paramount upped its offer to $30 per share \u2014 but still came away empty handed.<\/p>\n
Paramount confirmed Monday that it submitted its $30 per share offer a few hours before Netflix was announced as the winner.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe never heard back,\u201d Paramount Chairman and Chief Executive David Ellison told CNBC Monday morning. \u201cWe\u2019re here to finish the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Warner representative did not immediately provide comment.<\/p>\n
Paramount now is bypassing Warner\u2019s board, management and bankers and appealing directly to shareholders in a hostile takeover. In a statement, Paramount said it\u2019s bid was a \u201csuperior alternative\u201d to Netflix, which will face a rigorous and lengthy anti-trust review. <\/p>\n
In a statement, Paramount called Netflix\u2019s offer \u201cinferior,\u201d one that would expose Warner shareholders \u201cto a protracted multi-jurisdictional regulatory clearance process with an uncertain outcome.\u201d Paramount has long counted on its warm relationship with President Trump to smooth the regulatory process, at least in the U.S. <\/p>\n
Warner Bros. Discovery continues to believe that Netflix submitted the best offer. <\/p>\n
Netflix is not buying Warner\u2019s basic cable channels, including CNN, TBS, Food Network and TLC, and Warner figures it can spin off those assets into a separate company Discovery Global that would be worth about $3 to $4 a share. <\/p>\n
When adding the Discovery Global value with Netflix\u2019s $27.75 a share price, Warner believes its shareholders will come away with more than $31 a share for the company \u2014 more than what Paramount has offered.<\/p>\n
Netflix offered a cash and stock deal. The company said it would take a year to 18 months to gain the necessary regulatory approvals.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, we\u2019re sitting on Wall Street, where cash is still king,\u201d Ellison told CNBC. \u201cWe are offering shareholders $17.6 billion more cash than the deal that they currently have signed up on Netflix. We believe when [Warner shareholders] see what is currently in our offer, that that\u2019s what they\u2019ll vote for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since mid-September, Paramount had submitted six bids for all of Warner Bros. Discovery. <\/p>\n
President Donald Trump said Sunday that the deal struck by Netflix to buy Warner Bros. Discovery \u201ccould be a problem\u201d because of the size of the combined market share.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe our offer will create a stronger Hollywood. It is in the best interests of the creative community, consumers and the movie theater industry,\u201d Ellison said in a statement. \u201cWe believe they will benefit from the enhanced competition, higher content spend and theatrical release output, and a greater number of movies in theaters as a result of our proposed transaction.\u201d <\/p>\n
Paramount\u2019s tender offer is set to expire on Jan. 8, 2026, unless it\u2019s extended. <\/p>\n
Shares of Warner Bros. and Paramount jumped between 5% and 6% at the opening bell on Monday. Shares of Netflix edged lower.<\/p>\n
Staff Writer Stephen Battaglio and the Associated Press contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paramount is refusing to accept defeat in the Warner Bros. Discovery auction; it said Monday that it was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[15327,16950,5177,1804,6709,48533,48,52,51,47,50,49,1024,4287,9233,5848,18002,6336,48532,14955,48531],"class_list":["post-86305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-bid","tag-cash","tag-cnn","tag-company","tag-deal","tag-great-number","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-monday","tag-movie","tag-netflix","tag-network","tag-offer","tag-paramount","tag-transaction","tag-warner-bros","tag-warner-share"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}