Source: Paramount
David Ellison
David Ellison’s Paramount has reportedly made a higher offer for Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) hours before the one-week negotiating window was due to expire on Monday night.
Heading into the talks, Paramount’s current all-cash hostile offer stood at $30 per share in its $108.4bn bid for the entirety of WBD. Ellison and his team have made at least nine offers and details from the talks are expected on Tuesday.
The week-long window marked the first time the WBD board has officially engaged in talks with Paramount, after it accepted Netflix’s $82.7bn offer in December.
Paramount and WBD declined to comment at press time. The companies report earnings this week on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
Last month the streamer amended its $27.75 bid for Warner Bros’ streaming and studios business to an all-cash offer that will see WBD shareholders receive additional value of shares in the spin-off cable group Discovery Global that houses CNN.
On February 10 Paramount sweetened its bid to include a “ticking fee” payable to WBD shareholders to compensate for lag time in closing the deal, and said it would also cover the $2.8bn termination fee that WBD must pay Netflix were it to eventually go with the Paramount offer.
WBD shareholders will decide which offer to choose during a vote on March 20. The accepted offer is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.
Donald Trump weighed into the matter indirectly over the weekend when he posted on Truth Social that Netflix should fire board member Susan Rice “or pay the consequences”. This came after Rice, the former Biden administration UN ambassador, told the Stay Tuned With Preet podcast that elites” such as corporations, law firms, and parts of the media that “take a knee” to Trump could be “held accountable by those who come in opposition to Trump and win at the ballot box”. The US mid-terms take place in November.
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today show on Monday about Trump’s fiery outburst, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the WBD transaction was a business deal and not a political deal.
