pursuit of Warner in mid-September<\/a>. It is now 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>\nNetflix declined to comment.<\/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. On Friday, the company said it would take a year to 18 months to gain the necessary regulatory approvals. Paramount is banking on investors being concerned about possible regulatory fallout with the Netflix deal. <\/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 submitted six bids for all of Warner Bros. Discovery. <\/p>\n
Trump said Sunday that Netflix\u2019s deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery \u201ccould be a problem\u201d because of the size of the streaming service\u2019s combined market share. Trump said he \u201cwould be involved\u201d in his administration\u2019s decision whether to approve any deal.<\/p>\n
Paramount said its $30 per share all-cash offer represents a 139% premium to Warner\u2019s $12.54 stock price on Sept. 10, the day before Paramount\u2019s pursuit leaked in the press. With the absorption of Warner\u2019s cable channels and its heavy debt load, the Paramount deal would have an enterprise value of $108.4 billion.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s roughly what AT&T paid to buy the company, then called Time Warner Inc., in 2018 after spending nearly two years fighting in court with the first Trump administration. A federal judge finally cleared the way for AT&T\u2019s takeover but after three years the phone company wanted to flee Hollywood and made a deal with Discovery\u2019s David Zaslav, allowing his smaller company to take over. <\/p>\n
\u201c<\/b>The Trump card is the best card Paramount-Skydance has but it could backfire in multiple directions,\u201d New Street Research media analyst Blair Levin said Monday in a note to investors. \u201cAs they say in Hollywood, \u2018stay tuned\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just like with the AT&T deal for Time Warner, the Trump administration may not have the final say. If the U.S. Justice Department sues to block the Netflix deal, the matter will go before a federal judge. <\/p>\n
However, Paramount hired Trump\u2019s former antitrust regulator \u2014 Makan Delrahim \u2014 to steer a successful regulatory review. Delrahim joined Paramount in October as its chief legal officer.<\/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, launching a $78-billion hostile takeover of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":433870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[95592,1582,276,4504,10755,638,3853,201179,2961,224,5337,9548,3196,4659,938,19832,15329,22725,1021,201178],"class_list":{"0":"post-433869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-bid","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-cash","12":"tag-cnn","13":"tag-company","14":"tag-deal","15":"tag-great-number","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-losangeles","19":"tag-monday","20":"tag-movie","21":"tag-netflix","22":"tag-network","23":"tag-offer","24":"tag-paramount","25":"tag-transaction","26":"tag-warner-bros","27":"tag-warner-share"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115685488403805217","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}