Paramount Skydance launches hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros Discovery

The company said it would pay $30 per share in cash for Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), valuing the company at around $108bn, including debt.

Paramount has offered to buy all of WBD, including the Warner Bros. movie studio, the HBO Max streaming service, and a portfolio of cable channels that includes CNN.

Last week, Netflix bid to buy Warner Bros Discovery's studio and streaming assets for $27.75 per share.

Paramount’s bid will reportedly be backed in part by funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, as well as Affinity Partners, an investment firm founded by Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law.

Announcing the takeover bid, Paramount said its “strategically and financially compelling offer to WBD shareholders provides a superior alternative to the Netflix transaction, which offers inferior and uncertain value and exposes WBD shareholders to a protracted multi-jurisdictional regulatory clearance process with an uncertain outcome, along with a complex and volatile mix of equity and cash.”

Paramount said its decision to go hostile came after it made several earlier bids that Warner management “never engaged meaningfully” with, following the company’s October announcement that it was open to selling itself.

Paramount added that its offer for the entirety of WBD provides shareholders $18bnmore in cash than the Netflix deal.

David Ellison, Chairman and CEO of Paramount, said: "WBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer for their shares in the entire company. Our public offer, which is on the same terms we provided to the WBD Board of Directors in private, provides superior value and a more certain and quicker path to completion.”

Netflix recently agreed to acquire the content and streaming business of Warner Bros. for $72bn (£54bn). Discover more here.