Paramount makes $108bn all-cash bid for Warner Bros. Discovery

• Paramount’s proposal would acquire all WBD assets, exceeding Netflix’s per-share valuation.
• CEO David Ellison says Paramount is offering shareholders $18bn more in cash than Netflix.
• Netflix’s deal remains tentative pending federal antitrust approval.

Paramount Skydance has made an all-cash offer to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery for $30 per share, valuing the deal at about $108.4 billion.

Paramount launched a hostile tender offer as it seeks to outbid Netflix’s proposed agreement announced last week.

The offer would see Paramount acquire all Warner Bros. assets, topping Netflix’s earlier $82.7 billion cash-and-stock offer, valued at roughly $27.75 per share and excluding WBD’s cable networks.

The deal would include Warner Bros. Discovery’s games division, home to studios such as Rocksteady, NetherRealm, TT Games, Avalanche Software, and WB Games Montréal. Like Netflix’s announcement, Paramount’s statement does not provide any details about its plans for these game assets or how they would fit into the company.

“WBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer for their shares in the entire company," said Paramount CEO and chairman David Ellison. “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 maximise the value of their shares."

Netflix's favoured offer 

Paramount is bidding to buy all of Warner Bros. Discovery for $108.4bn, higher than Netflix’s $82.7bn offer, which excludes WBD’s cable networks. 

But WBD recommended Netflix’s offer instead, arguing its cable assets would generate more value if spun off separately rather than kept alongside the film studio and HBO.

Paramount had been seen as the leading contender for Warner Bros. last week, but WBD chose Netflix’s offer instead, calling it the more attractive option. 

The Netflix deal remains tentative, with both boards having supported that transaction, but it is still awaiting federal antitrust approval. Warner Bros. Discovery has not commented on Paramount's proposal.