Warner Bros. Discovery Rejects Paramount’s Hostile Bid

The board of Warner Bros. Discovery has rejected Paramount’s hostile bid for the company.

In a statement, the chairman of the WBD board, Samuel A. Di Piazza, Jr., said...

Following a careful evaluation of Paramount’s recently launched tender offer, the Board concluded that the offer’s value is inadequate, with significant risks and costs imposed on our shareholders ...This offer once again fails to address key concerns that we have consistently communicated to Paramount throughout our extensive engagement and review of their six previous proposals. We are confident that our merger with Netflix represents superior, more certain value for our shareholders and we look forward to delivering on the compelling benefits of our combination.

Paramount offered WBD $30 per share in cash for the company, more than Netflix in the deal that it and WBD agreed to earlier this month.

But Netflix’s deal is for just the Warner Bros. studio, HBO and HBO Max, and a few other components of the company; Paramount’s larger bid is for the entire company, including its linear cable companies like CNN, which under Netflix’s deal (and in a plan that has already been in motion for months) would be spun off into a separate company.

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Part of Paramount’s argument in favor of their bid is that theirs is the one that holds the best chance of getting approved by the government, because of their supposed close relationship with President Trump and the current U.S. administration.

But just yesterday Trump was complaining about Paramount and CBS on social media, writing “for those people that think I am close with the new owners of CBS, please understand that 60 Minutes has treated me far worse since the so-called ‘takeover,’ than they have ever treated me before. If they are friends, I’d hate to see my enemies!” (Trump was responding to a recent interview on 60 Minutes with Marjorie Taylor Green that he didn’t like.)

Paramount’s rejected bid also included funds from Jared Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners. But earlier this week Kushner’s group pulled out of the deal as well, writing in a statement “with two ​strong competitors ​vying to secure ​the future ​of this ​unique American ​asset, ​Affinity ​has ​decided no longer to pursue ​the opportunity. We ​continue to ​believe ​there is a strong strategic rationale for Paramount’s offer.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warners’ rejection of Paramount’s hostile bid was expected, and not necessarily the end of the battle for control of the media giant. Per their sources “Ellison and the Paramount team were waiting to see WBD’s response before deciding their next move. If Paramount comes back with a higher bid, Netflix will have the chance to match it, or respond with their own counter, effectively kicking off a new bidding war.”

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Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky