Paramount launches rival bid for Warner Bros Discovery – directly competing with Netflix

Following the news that Netflix has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Warner Bros Discovery's film and television studios, as well as HBO Max and HBO, a new bid for the historic film company is being made by rival studio Paramount Skydance.

Paramount Skydance, which was itself born out of a merger just earlier this year between Paramount Global and Skydance Media, is headed up by David Ellison, who has for some time now made clear his wish to acquire Warner Bros.

Warner Bros Discovery reportedly received and rejected an acquisition offer from Paramount Skydance back in October, before a bidding war began between Netflix, Paramount Skydance and Comcast.

Warner Bros Discovery announced the definitive agreement with Netflix last week, with the deal being worth nearly $83 billion.

However, Paramount Skydance has now launched what is known as a hostile bid to take over Warner Bros Discovery, making a direct offer to shareholders of $30 per share to take the entire company, including its traditional TV networks which are excluded from the Netflix deal.

Paramount Skydance has said it is proposing a "superior" alternative to the Netflix deal, and argued that it had a better chance of being approved by regulators.

Over the weekend, US President Donald Trump said that Netflix's "big market share" combined with the Warner Bros Discovery streaming assets it would be incorporating "could be a problem", referring to US competition laws.

The boards of both Netflix and Warner Bros Discovery said on Friday that they supported the Netflix purchase, which is expected to take place in 2026 or 2027, once the additional elements of the latter business are spun-off into an independent company.

Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and the DC Universe are some of the big film franchises owned by Warner Bros, while Game of Thrones, Friends an

In a statement announcing the new bid, Paramount Skydance said: "The Paramount offer for the entirety of WBD provides shareholders $18 billion more in cash than the Netflix consideration.

"WBD’s Board of Directors recommendation of the Netflix transaction over Paramount’s offer is based on an illusory prospective valuation of Global Networks that is unsupported by the business fundamentals and encumbered by high levels of financial leverage assigned to the entity."

Meanwhile, Ellison said: "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.

"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 maximise the value of their shares."

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