Posted on 12/08/2025 6:29:46 AM PST by DFG
Paramount Skydance is launching a hostile bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery after it lost out to Netflix in a months-long bidding war for the legacy assets, the company said Monday.
Paramount will go straight to WBD shareholders with an all-cash, $30-per-share offer. That’s the same bid WBD rejected last week, according to people familiar with the bid who asked not to be named because the details were private. The offer is backstopped with equity financing from the Ellison family and the private-equity firm RedBird Capital and $54 billion of debt commitments from Bank of America, Citi and Apollo Global Management.
“We’re really here to finish what we started,” Ellison told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” Monday. “We put the company in play.”
Shares of Paramount were roughly 3% higher in premarket trading Monday. Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery were up about 5%. Shares of Netflix were slightly lower.
On Friday, Netflix announced a deal to acquire WBD’s studio and streaming assets for $72 billion. David Ellison-run Paramount had been bidding for the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery, including those assets and the company’s TV networks like CNN and TNT Sports.
Comcast also bid for the streaming and studio businesses, CNBC previously reported.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
I hope Skydance is successful. Netflix is evil.
I’m with you on this one.
They all are, so it doesn’t really matter. Just choose what you watch wisely.
Batman will definitely be gay and whole movies will be around Robin smarting from an especially angry butt rape, the night before.
Six Flags will need to find something more family friendly for its licensed WB characters.
Sick. Netflix must be stopped.
Netflix’ bid: $72 billion
Paramount’s counter: $108B (@$30 per share)
Current Warner Bros./Discovery (WBD) share price: roughly $27.60 (opened around $26.08). Peaked at $28.17.
Current company valuation: ~$68.5 billion
I can understand why Paramount was miffed at being spurned.
And Paramount. Is bidding on the whole works not cherry-picking
Skydance is 10% owned by the Chinese. Primary ownership is Larry Ellison, Oracle.
Skydance is 10% owned by the Chinese. Primary ownership is Larry Ellison, Oracle.
At the end of the day, it may not matter whether Skydance or Netflix gets Warner Bros. The old Hollywood studios are dead and are going to continue to get passed around like a cheap whore among the streaming services and venture capital firms after this acquisition. They are dead. In part that is bad because there were times when they made good, original content and there isn’t much hope for that with the crap that the streaming services have been pumping out. But in part, it is good because they were part of the liberal media apparatus that controlled culture for so long. I know Netflix, in particular, is part of that liberal media complex but ultimately, there is much more ideological competition with the new model.
we need diversity in the media instead of consolidation and control by a few unaccountable libtard leftists.
Libtards love diversity except when it’s inconvenient for them like in media and thought.
netflix just wants the obamas to have “conversations” with its audience... one way conversations
This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation.
This tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers.
This tube is the most awesome god___n force in the whole godless world.
And woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people.
And that’s why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died.
Because this company is now in the hands of CCA — the Communication Corporation of America. There’s a new Chairman of the Board, a man called Frank Hackett, sitting in Mr. Ruddy’s office on the 20th floor. And when the 12th largest company in the world controls the most awesome god___n propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what s__t will be peddled for truth on this network.
-Howard Beale (Network)
I want Trump to stay out of this.
He is chums with the head of Paramount.
I don’t want that relationship tainting any FTC or antitrust decision on the matter. Too many meetings or conversations from now on between Trump and the head of Paramount, an FTC or antitrust decision against Netflix will appear as sheer political interference, even if technically it would be the right decision.
Paramount’s offer is larger because Paramount wants the whole company - Warner Bros/Discovery. The Netflix bid is lower because with that bid they only get Warner Bros and none of the Discovery cable channel business, which Warner/Discovery will sell in a spin off as a separate company.
“who knows what s__t will be peddled for truth on this network”
We know now:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LGBTQ_awareness_periods
along with a bunch of anti-white racism.
Yep, let the shareholders decide.
Ah... guessing that reduces the value of that $108B by a notable amount. That's probably why the stock price is continuing to drift downward... ~$27.05 and still going. Investors aren't taking the $30/share thing that seriously yet.
very valid point, RC. That has been my experience....
Ellison succedeed in at least one hostile takeover: Oracle’s purchase of PeopleSoft in 2005.
It took 18 months, but PeopleSoft shareholders eventually wanted the money more than independence.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.