David Ellison’s Paramount has reportedly made a higher offer for Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) hours before the one-week negotiating window was due to expire on Monday night.
Paramount’s current all-cash hostile offer is $30 per share – which translates to $108bn for the entirety of WBD. Ellison and his team have made at least nine offers.
The week-long window marked the first time the WBD board has officially engaged in talks with Paramount, after it accepted Netflix’s $83bn offer.
Paramount and WBD declined to comment at press time.
Last month the streamer amended its $27.75 bid for Warner Bros’ streaming and studios business to an all-cash offer that will see WBD shareholders receive additional value of shares in the spin-off linear TV group Discovery Global. That value remains undetermined.
On February 10 Paramount sweetened its bid to include a “ticking fee” payable to WBD shareholders to compensate for lag time in closing the deal, and said it would also cover the $2.8bn termination fee that WBD must pay Netflix were it to eventually goi with the paramount offer.
WBD shareholders will decide which offer to choose during a vote on March 20. The accepted offer is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.
Donald Trump weighed into the matter indirectly over the weekend when he said Netflix should fire board member Susan Rice “or pay the consequences” following her remarks on the Stay Tuned With Preet podcast that that elites” such as corporations, law firms, and parts of the media that “take a knee” to Trump could be “held accountable by those who come in opposition to Trump and win at the ballot box”.
Asked on Monday’s BBC Today show about Trump’s fiery post on Truth Social, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the WBD matter was a business deal and not a political deal.
No comments yet