Warner Bros Discovery mulls re-opening sales talks with Paramount

The move comes after Paramount amended its bid for Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) as part of its hostile bid, which promised shareholders $30 per share to take over all of WBD.

Members of the WBD board are discussing whether Paramount's offer might be better than a rival bid by Netflix – a move that could lead to a second bidding war for the legendary Hollywood studio.

Bloomberg reported that members of the WBD board haven’t yet decided how to respond to Paramount’s renewed bid.

WBD has agreed to sell its studio and streaming business to Netflix in a $27.75 a share deal.

As part of an amended bid submitted earlier this month, Paramount said it would cover a $2.8bn fee owed to Netflix if WBD terminates its agreement. The company also said it will compensate WBD shareholders if the deal doesn’t close by December 31, due to its confidence that its deal would be faster to gain regulatory approval than Netflix’s.

Bloomberg said that both Paramount and Netflix have indicated they would be willing to raise their bids to secure a deal for WBD.

David Ellison, Chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance, recently wrote an open letter to the UK creative community setting out a series of commitments should Paramount succeed in acquiring WBD. Discover more here.