Paramount Makes Hostile Bid for Warner Bros. at $30 a Share

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The fight over the future of Hollywood just got nastier. Paramount Skydance Corp. launched a hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. at $30 a share in cash on Monday, just days after the company agreed to a deal with Netflix Inc. The offer values Warner Bros. at $108.4 billion, including debt. The bid compares with Netflix’s offer of $27.75 in cash and stock. Paramount’s offer is for all of Warner Bros., while Netflix is interested only in the Hollywood studios, HBO and the streaming business.  Warner Bros. investors “deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer for their shares in the entire company,” Paramount Chief Executive Officer David Ellison said in a statement.  Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Media Analyst Geetha Ranganathan joins Tom Keene and Paul Sweeney on Bloomberg Surveillance to discuss. The battle between Netflix and Paramount stands to reshape the entertainment industry regardless of who wins. With Warner Bros. films and TV shows, Netflix would wield tremendous new power over the content offered to online audiences. Paramount aims to marry two legacy Hollywood studios to counter the influence of Netflix, Walt Disney Co. and Amazon.com Inc. Both bids raise significant antitrust concerns, underscored by multibillion-dollar breakup fees the parties have offered, and both companies have been laying the groundwork to win over the White House. Paramount, the parent of CBS, MTV and other media businesses, instigated the battle several months ago when it made multiple offers for Warner Bros. The company decided to put itself up for sale in October and received several rounds of bids, including from Netflix and Comcast Corp. Comcast said Monday it didn’t see a “high likelihood” of winning. Warner Bros. shares were up 4.1% to $27.15 at 12:35 p.m. in New York on Monday. Paramount was up 9.9% while Netflix was down 4.3%. Paramount argues that its $30-a-share offer is greater than Netflix’s, but comparing the two bids is complicated by Warner Bros.’ plans to spin off cable networks such as CNN, TNT and the Discovery Channel. Under terms of the Dec. 5 deal announced with Netflix, Warner Bros. would divest those networks before the planned merger closes.  Paramount is valuing the spinoff at about $2 a share for Warner investors, according to a person close to the Paramount bid. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Geetha Ranganathan estimates the cable channels are worth $4 for every Warner Bros. share, making the Netflix bid higher. Paramount also said its offer gives Warner Bros. shareholders $18 billion more in cash than the Netflix bid. On a conference call with investors, Chief Operating Officer Andy Gordon said Paramount’s tender offer will be open for 20 business days and could be extended. Warner Bros. has 10 days to respond, he said. “We’re really here to finish what we started,” Ellison said on CNBC. Both bidders are likely to face an extended review by regulators all over the globe, though Paramount argues its transaction is more likely to be approved because Netflix has a much larger share of the streaming TV market than Paramount+. Netflix co-Chief Executive Officer Ted Sarandos has personally courted President Donald Trump, meeting him at the White House last month and last year at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida. He has argued Netflix competes with services like YouTube and ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok, as well as with Hollywood. Ellison has touted his family’s good relations with the president. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is participating in the Paramount offer through his Affinity Partners. When asked about the Netflix deal on Sunday, Trump said it will “go through a process” and that “it is a big market share. It could be a problem.” Trump on Monday criticized CBS’s 60 Minutes following an interview the program had with US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. He said CBS parent Paramount is “no better than the old ownership.”  -------- Watch Bloomberg Radio LIVE on YouTube Weekdays 7am-6pm ET WATCH HERE: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/BloombergRadio Subscribe to our Podcasts: Bloomberg Daybreak: http://bit.ly/3DWYoAN Bloomberg Surveillance: http://bit.ly/3OPtReI Bloomberg Intelligence: http://bit.ly/3YrBfOi Balance of Power: http://bit.ly/3OO8eLC Bloomberg Businessweek: http://bit.ly/3IPl60i Listen on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app: Apple CarPlay: https://apple.co/486mghI Android Auto: https://bit.ly/49benZy Visit our YouTube channels: Bloomberg Podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/bloombergpodcasts Bloomberg Television: https://www.youtube.com/@markets Bloomberg Originals: https://www.youtube.com/bloomberg Quicktake: https://www.youtube.com/@BloombergQuicktake