Warner Bros. Discovery rejects Paramount’s hostile bid, calls offer ‘illusory’

2 hours ago 6

Aisha Malik

Wed, December 17, 2025 astatine 9:30 AM CST 1 min read

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Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) board of directors has rejected the $108 cardinal hostile takeover bid from David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance, calling the connection “illusory,” and saying that Paramount had misled shareholders astir its financing.

Saying it wants to grant its archetypal statement to merchantability to Netflix, WBD’s committee wrote successful a missive to shareholders that Paramount “has consistently misled WBD shareholders that its projected transaction has a ‘full backstop’ from the Ellison family.”

“It does not, and ne'er has,” the missive reads.

WBD’s committee said Paramount’s tender connection remains “inferior to the Netflix merger” and noted that Netflix’s $27.75-per-share connection for Warner Bros’ Hollywood studios and streaming business “is a binding statement with enforceable commitments, with nary request for immoderate equity financing and robust indebtedness commitments.”

Netflix welcomed the move. “The Warner Bros. Discovery committee reinforced that Netflix’s merger statement is superior and that our acquisition is successful the champion interests of stockholders,” said Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos successful a statement.

Paramount and Ellison’s backers, including his father, tech billionaire Larry Ellison, volition reappraisal WBD’s rejection and find whether to rise their offer, Variety reports.