Warner Bros. plans to reject Paramount’s offer once again
Shareholders have until January 21, 2026, to offer to sell their shares to Paramount Skydance.
According to Bloomberg, Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. plans next week to reject a takeover bid from rival media company Paramount Skydance Corp. after the latter changed the terms of the offer, according to sources familiar with the company’s thinking.
The Warner Bros. board hasn’t made a final determination, but will meet next week, said the people, who asked not be identified discussing internal deliberations. Among the board’s concerns, Paramount has yet to increase its offer, which Warner Bros. earlier rejected as inferior to one from Netflix Inc.
Paramount, the owner of its namesake studio and MTV, is running a public campaign to drum up support for its bid to acquire Warner Bros., which owns HBO and CNN.
Paramount announced its offer on Dec. 8 for $30 a share in cash, three days after Warner Bros. agreed to a deal with Netflix that would buy only Warner Bros.’ studio and streaming business.
Paramount has since revised its offer twice, most recently to include a guarantee from billionaire Larry Ellison that he would personally guarantee $40.4 billion in equity financing and other commitments.
The Warner Bros. board is unchanged and is waiting for Paramount to increase the financial terms of its offer, the sources said. Several shareholders have said they expect Paramount to offer more money.
The board is also concerned that the Paramount deal would prevent the company from managing its debt without Larry Ellison’s (Paramount CEO) approval and that Paramount has not guaranteed to cover the penalties that Warner Bros. would have to pay Netflix.
Warner Bros. has argued in public filings that it believes the Netflix offer is superior to Paramount’s for a number of reasons, including that Paramount will be heavily indebted and plans to cut more jobs. Netflix is the most valuable company in Hollywood with a market value of more than $400 billion.
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