Paramount tables rival $108bn all-cash bid for Warner Bros Discovery

(Sharecast News) - Paramount Skydance on Monday launched a $108bn hostile takeover offer for Warner Bros Discovery, just days after Netflix agreed a bid with the movie studio and streaming network worth $83bn. Paramount said its rival $30-a-share all cash offer "provides superior value, and a more certain and quicker path to completion to WBD shareholders" than the Netflix deal, which sparked a backlash over competition concerns, with US President Donald Trump threatening to get involved.

Warner Brothers' shares were up 7.6% in early trading on Wall Street, pushing them up to $28.07, below the new bid, but above Netflix's $27.75 cash-and-share offer.

Paramount also accused Warner of not engaging with six merger proposals over the course of 12 weeks, saying that its direct appeal to shareholders and board would "ensure they have the opportunity to pursue this clearly superior alternative".

Chief executive David Ellison said the deal was "in the best interests of the creative community, consumers and the movie theater industry".

Ellison is the son of Oracle co-founder and the world's second-richest person, Larry Ellison, who has close ties with the Trump administration. The Ellison family is financially backing the deal and the Guardian newspaper reported last month that the White House favours a Paramount takeover, and that the senior Ellison in at least one phone call engaged in a dialogue about possibly axing some of the CNN hosts whom Trump is said to loathe.

A key difference between the two bids is that Paramount wants to buy all of Warner Bros - essentially its cable TV businesses - which include Discovery and news channel CNN - along with the studio and streaming operations. Netflix only wants the Hollywood studios and streaming business.

Warner Bros had previously announced it would separate its Streaming & Studios and Global Networks divisions into two separate publicly traded companies.

"Paramount is highly confident in achieving expeditious regulatory clearance for its proposed offer, as it enhances competition and is pro-consumer, while creating a strong champion for creative talent and consumer choice," the company said in a statement.

"In contrast, the Netflix transaction is predicated on the unrealistic assumption that its anticompetitive combination with WBD, which would entrench its monopoly with a 43% share of global Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) subscribers, could withstand multiple protracted regulatory challenges across the world."

It added that the Netflix deal "creates a clear risk of higher prices for consumers, lower pay for content creators and talent and the destruction of American and international theatrical exhibitors", while the streaming service had "never undertaken large-scale acquisitions, resulting in increased execution risk which WBD shareholders would have to endure".

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com