Paramount derails the Netflix-Warner Bros. deal with a hostile takeover bid of $108.4 billion

Just three days after Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) reached an agreement worth $82.7 billion, including film and television studios, HBO Max and HBO, Paramount Skydance, owned by billionaire David Ellison, launched a hostile takeover bid that also includes WBD’s cable services (CNN, TBS and HGTV) worth $108.4 billion, including debt.

The proposals from Netflix and Paramount Skydance differ in several respects. Paramount’s all-cash offer values $30 per share of the company, compared to $27.75 in the proposal from the company co-led by Ted Sarandos. However, it covers more assets than last week’s transaction.

If Paramount Skydance’s offer is confirmed, it would not only cover its film and television studios, HBO Max and HBO (including its entire catalogue of series and films), but also traditional cable channels such as CNN, TNT, Cartoon Network and Discovery itself, whose ‘independence’ was planned for the third quarter of 2026.

The key to the deal’s success will depend on US President Donald Trump, who has confirmed that he will actively participate in the review process. ‘The deal could be a problem. They have a very large market share. And when you have Warner Bros., that share increases dramatically. So I will be involved in that decision,’ the president said of Netflix’s offer.

Paramount Skydance’s proposal is closer to Trump’s interests. Ellison’s company is backed by the fund of Jared Kushner, son-in-law of the US president, and investment vehicles from Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, which, according to media outlets such as El País,”maintain excellent relations with the White House tenant”. In addition, Trump already actively supported Skydance’s $8 billion purchase of Paramount in July 2024, which included such valuable assets as CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central.

“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 maximize the value of their shares,” said Ellison when presenting the hostile takeover bid, convinced that the path to building the next great media empire will be complex, but with the confidence of someone who has powerful allies backing him.