Warner Bros. Discovery rejects Paramount's hostile bid

Warner Bros. Discovery’s board has formally rejected the $108 billion takeover bid from Paramount Skydance, the corporate introduced. WBD stated it stays dedicated to its $82.7 billion deal with Netflix, which might shut a while subsequent 12 months, pending regulatory approval.

“[The board] has unanimously decided that the tender supply launched by Paramount Skydance on December 8, 2025 is just not in the perfect pursuits of WBD and its shareholders and doesn’t meet the factors of a “Superior Proposal” underneath the phrases of WBD’s merger settlement with Netflix introduced on December 5, 2025,” the studio stated within the press launch.

Paramount’s supply was funded partly by sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, so it might have triggered a nationwide safety evaluate by the US authorities. Nonetheless, Paramount stated that even when these entities dropped out, the corporate’s homeowners (the Ellisons) would “backstop the total quantity of the bid.”

Nonetheless, the board stated that Paramount “has constantly misled WBD shareholders that its proposed transaction has a ‘full backstop’ from the Ellison household. It doesn’t, and by no means has,” including that “the phrases of the Netflix merger are superior.” WBD defined that Paramount is counting on an “opaque revocable belief” for stated backstop which is “no substitute for a secured dedication by a controlling shareholder.” WBD’s board additionally famous that Paramount expects to attain $9 billion in price synergies from the merger, and that “would make Hollywood weaker, not stronger.”

In a assertion, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos stated that “the Warner Bros. Discovery board bolstered that Netflix’s merger settlement is superior and that our acquisition is in the perfect curiosity of stockholders. This was a aggressive course of that delivered the perfect end result for customers, creators, stockholders and the broader leisure business.”

Paramount has but to remark, however the firm has beforehand stated that its $30 per share supply is a greater deal, because of the all-cash nature (in comparison with 84 p.c money for Netflix) and proven fact that it will have a clearer path to regulatory approval because of the Ellison’s supposedly tight relationship with President Trump.