While I remain convinced that Paramount Skydance, helmed by David Ellison and backed by father Larry Ellison, will acquire Warner Bros and associated properties due to the Ellison’s association with President Trump, and stifling Netflix’s acquisition attempt, Warner Bros themselves continues to play the game by the rules, or at least what I expect are the rules:
Warner Bros. on Wednesday unanimously rejected Paramount’s revised offer to acquire the production studio, saying the hostile bid is still too risky for shareholders to accept, despite the guaranteed financial backing Paramount pegged to its $108.4 billion offer in December.
Netflix and Paramount Skydance have been locked in a race to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which announced late last year that it had entered into an $83 billion deal with Netflix for its studios and the HBO Max streaming platform. That prompted Paramount CEO David Ellison to mount a hostile takeover bid. Paramount has since made eight offers to Warner Bros., all of which have been rejected by the board out of concern over the risk presented by debt, financial backing and large fees if the deal were to collapse.
In a letter to shareholders, the Warner Bros. Discovery board said that Paramount’s revised $30-per-share offer is still too risky because it relies on an “extraordinary amount of debt financing,” adding that the leveraged buyout threatens shareholders with “considerable value destruction.” [MS NOW]
If the Netflix deal is nixed by, well, Trump, will Warner Bros bravely refuse the Paramount Skydance offering and continue to be independent?
