Paramount Gets More Aggressive With New $108 Billion Warner Bros. Bid After Netflix Deal

Skydance isn't lying down while Netflix attempts its bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. Last week, Netflix shocked Hollywood when the streamer announced it had reached an agreement to purchase Warner Bros. Paramount was believed to be in the driver's seat, but WB decided to take Netflix's offer. Now, Paramount is firing back.

Per Variety, Paramount's new bid for Warner Bros. Discovery includes an all-cash tender offer for all of WB's outstanding shares at $30 per share. Instead of just attempting to buy WB's movie business and HBO/HBO Max, Paramount is willing to absorb the entire company, which includes TV networks such as CNN, TNT, TBS and more.

This is the same offer that Paramount sent to Warner Bros. Discovery on Dec. 1, which was ultimately rejected in favor of the Netflix offer. Comcast was also one of the companies vying for WB. Netflix's winning offer was for $72 billion for the movie operations and HBO Max, with an enterprise value of $82.7 billion.

Paramount Attempts a Hostile Takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery

What Paramount is essentially attempting to do is launch a hostile takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. In a statement, Paramount suggests that its bid for WB far outweighs Netflix's, while also highlighting potential legal hurdles that a Netflix win couldface.

“Paramount’s strategically and financially compelling offer to WBD shareholders provides a superior alternative to the Netflix transaction, which offers inferior and uncertain value and exposes WBD shareholders to a protracted multi-jurisdictional regulatory clearance process with an uncertain outcome along with a complex and volatile mix of equity and cash,” Paramount's statement read.

Comparing the offers, Paramount's bid is an all-cash offer with an enterprise value of $108.4 billion that assumes all of WB's debut. Meanwhile, the Netflix offer features what Paramount is calling “a volatile and complex structure” that equates to an enterprise value of $82.7 billion that excludes the TV business.

Backing Paramount's offer are Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, the father of Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, and RedBird Capital Partners. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi are also backing Paramount's bid. $54 billion debt commitments from Bank of America, Citi and Apollo Global Management are also helping to finance.

“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," Ellison said in a statement.

"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.”