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 announced. WBD stated it stays dedicated to its $82.7 billion deal with Netflix, which might shut a while subsequent yr, pending regulatory approval.

“[The board] has unanimously decided that the tender supply launched by Paramount Skydance on December 8, 2025 shouldn’t be in the very best pursuits of WBD and its shareholders and doesn’t meet the standards 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 assessment by the US authorities. Nonetheless, Paramount stated that even when these entities dropped out, the corporate’s homeowners (the Ellisons) would “backstop the complete quantity of the bid.”

Nonetheless, the board stated that Paramount “has persistently 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 statement, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos stated that “the Warner Bros. Discovery board strengthened that Netflix’s merger settlement is superior and that our acquisition is in the very best curiosity of stockholders. This was a aggressive course of that delivered the very best 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, as a result of all-cash nature (in comparison with 84 % money for Netflix) and indisputable fact that it could have a clearer path to regulatory approval as a result of Ellison’s supposedly tight relationship with President Trump.