Warner Bros. rejects Paramount’s bid, accuses it of ‘consistently misleading’ shareholders

Yuka joins us here in studio. Hi Yuka. Hi Monty. >> The battle over Warner Brothers is heating up. The company has rejected Paramount’s hostile takeover bit. >> Yeah, it’s gone on the offensive now uh with the board saying that Paramount’s offer carries many risks and inferior to Netflix’s. In a letter to shareholders, Warner Brothers accused Paramount of consistently misleading them in their negotiations that its cash offer has a full backs stop from the billionaire Ellison family that control it, saying it does not and never has. The board urged shareholders not to sell their stocks to them. In a regulatory filing, Warner Brothers presented a timeline of events and meetings that occurred between the two sides over the past months, highlighting the reasons why the board has rejected six previous offers from Paramount since September, starting at $19 per share. Now, when Warner Brothers finally sealed a deal with Netflix in early December, Paramount launched a hostile takeover bid 3 days later, appealing directly to shareholders to take a controlling stake. The two two offers are different. While Netflix only wants the studio and streaming business, Paramount wants all of the media conglomerate. Now, Netflix’s deal is valued at $82.7 billion with around $23 cash offer per share plus $4.5 in Netflix’s shares. Paramount Sky Dance is offering to buy stocks at $30 per share. So, the overall value of the deal is higher at 104 billion $108.4 billion. Now, the new owner would take over iconic movie franchises such as Harry Potter series and the DC Universe as well as HBO blockbusters such as Game of Thrones Monty. >> Well, and the drama over Warner Brothers is offshoot also taken a political turn, hasn’t it? >> Well, Paramount’s hostile bid drew scrutiny as it was partly backed by Affinity Partners, the private equity firm of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. On Tuesday though, the company said it was backing out of the deal, saying that the dynamics of the investments have changed significantly since it initially became involved in October. Skyance Paramount is led by David Ellison, the son of Oracle boss Larry, who is close to the president. The $8 billion merger between Skyance Media and Paramount Global, first announced last year, was itself hugely controversial. But in July, US regulators finally approved it. It came just weeks after Paramount Global agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the president over an interview aired in CBS’s 60 Minutes. Now the company’s eyeing Warner Brothers, the parent company of course of CNN, the target of President Trump’s repeated attacks. And shares in Paramount Skyance dropped more than 5% this Wednesday while Warner Brothers slid 2%. Netflix on the on the other hand gained 2/10en of a percent. Wall Street’s main indexes all closed lower with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq locking their 3-week lows. This as worries over tech companies taking on more debt to boost their AI investments continued to weigh on investor mines. >> And we were talking about this at the top of the newscast. Global oil prices rose after the US president ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil from Venezuela. Well, oil prices bounced back after from nearly four year lows on Wednesday with the international benchmark Brent rising to around $60 a barrel. Now, Washington says it’s part of of its war on drug trafficking, but Donald Trump’s ordering a total blockade on oil tankers in or out of Venezuela is widely seen as an attempt to cut off the country’s economic lifeline. Luke Shrego takes a look at Venezuela’s oil economy. >> Oil is the very lynch pin of Venezuela’s economy. The country has weathered years of US sanctions turning to its crude reserves about 17% of the world’s total to keep its ailing economy afloat. However, in targeting tankers directly, Washington has taken another tank. What we see is another strategy and with it another tactic which is to starve the regime of resources to take away the money that it receives from basically illegal um oil shipments to allies including China, Iran, Russia. >> Production peaked in the early 2000 at over 3 million barrels a day, but years of mismanagement and corruption saw levels crater by 2020. US sanctions on the sector starting in 2017 also hampered international investment, leaving Karacus to export illegally and often at a huge discount from market rates. Much goes to China, but a lot also goes to the United States, too. A single US firm, Chevron, retains permission to operate in Venezuela, with around half its production going to Nicholas Maduro’s government. With a possible US military intervention in the wings and the danger of hyperinflation that sent prices soaring in 2018, the Venezuelan leader has accused Washington of sheer piracy. >> No blood for oil. No war for oil. >> That it seems depends on just how much Washington wants those resources. >> And that’s it from the business desk. Okay, thanks a lot Ukaroya with business. And that’s it for now. Stay tuned for more world news still to come here on France 24.

Warner Brothers Discovery has rejected Paramount Skydance’s hostile takeover bid, saying it carries many risks and is inferior to Netflix’s offer. The company’s board said the Ellison family that controls Paramount “consistently misled” them about guarantees as it urged shareholders not to sell their stocks. Plus, as oil prices rise following US President Donald Trump’s order to blockade oil tankers in and out of Venezuela, we take a look at just how central oil is to the South American country’s economy. 
#WarnerBros #ParamountSkydance #MediaMerger

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7 comments

  2. If I were a shareholder, I’d go with Netflix and stay onboard the parts of WB Discovery they’re not buying. That, too, will be worth big bucks.

  5. Id rather have Netflix own warner brothers than Paramount because Paramount has censored South Park episodes which defeats the point of the show!

  6. zionists are really buying all the narrative.. CBS wasn't enough?
    Also .. funny how this channel reports US piracy of Venezuela oil as if USA is the victim.

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