News Headline
Paramount crashes Netflix’s party with hostile $108 billion bid for Warner Bros
LOS ANGELES & NEW YORK: Hollywood loves a good plot twist, and Paramount Skydance has just delivered a blockbuster. Days after Netflix waltzed off with a deal to buy Warner Bros Discovery’s crown jewels, David Ellison’s outfit has lobbed a hostile takeover bid worth $108.4 billion at the entire company—and it’s not taking no for an answer.
The drama began last week when WBD accepted Netflix’s $ 82.7billion offer for its streaming and studio assets, leaving behind the unloved cable networks like CNN. But Paramount chairman and chief executive Ellison reckons shareholders are getting short-changed. His company is offering $30 per share in cold, hard cash for all of WBD—a cool $18 billion more than Netflix’s deal, which mixes equity and cash at $27.75 per share.
“WBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer,” Ellison declared, going straight over the board’s head to appeal to investors. His pitch is simple: Paramount’s bid offers more money, more certainty, and a faster close. Netflix’s proposal, he argues, saddles shareholders with uncertain cable spin-off values and a regulatory obstacle course that could drag on for months.
The tender offer expires on 8 January 2026 at 5pm New York time, and Paramount isn’t mincing words. It accuses WBD’s board of pursuing an “illusory prospective valuation” of cable networks that’s “unsupported by the business fundamentals”. Translation: Netflix is selling shareholders a dodgy bill of goods.
The Netflix camp isn’t worried—yet. Its offer hinges on the belief that WBD’s cable assets, once spun off, will add several dollars per share in value, ultimately trumping Paramount’s headline figure. But that’s a bet on the future worth of declining linear television networks—hardly the safest wager in streaming-obsessed Hollywood.
Industry watchers reckon this battle is far from over. One warned that Paramount will “appeal to shareholders, regulators and politicians to try to stymie Netflix. The battle could become prolonged.” Even if Netflix remains in pole position, the regulatory gauntlet ahead—requiring approval from American and foreign authorities—could derail the deal entirely.
Paramount’s pitch is that it’s the anti-monopoly choice. Netflix’s combination with WBD would hand it 43 per cent of global subscription video-on-demand subscribers, creating what Paramount calls an “anticompetitive” behemoth. In several European Union countries, the deal would merge the dominant streaming player with the number two or three competitor. Paramount argues this means higher prices for consumers, lower pay for creative talent, and catastrophe for cinema chains.
Ellison, by contrast, is positioning himself as Hollywood’s saviour. A Paramount-WBD merger would unite two storied film studios and pair Paramount+ with HBO Max, creating a streaming titan capable of taking on Netflix, Disney and YouTube. Since merging with Skydance in August, Paramount has been on a tear: snapping up UFC broadcast rights, poaching Netflix executives and the Duffer brothers of Stranger Things fame, and buying Bari Weiss’s news startup The Free Press for $150m.
The combined company would boast formidable sports rights—the NFL, Olympics, UFC, PGA Tour, NHL, college football and basketball, and Champions League—and plans to invest $6 billion in cost synergies atop Paramount’s existing $3 billion transformation plan. Ellison promises more films in cinemas, higher content spending, and a “stronger Hollywood” that benefits creators, consumers and exhibitors alike.
The deal is fully financed, with equity backstopped by the Ellison family and RedBird Capital, plus $54 billion in debt commitments from Bank of America, Citi and Apollo. Paramount has already filed its Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust notification and insists regulatory clearance will be swift.
Some insiders whisper that Ellison’s ties to Donald Trump—whose father, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump ally—could smooth the regulatory path. The president has publicly praised the younger Ellison, and entertainment lawyers note that “the normal state of play” is “out the window” in an administration that values personal relationships over conventional antitrust analysis.
For now, Netflix holds the cards. But in Hollywood, where fortunes flip faster than scripts get rewritten, Paramount’s gambit has turned a done deal into a three-act thriller. The board may have chosen Netflix, but the shareholders haven’t voted yet. Pass the popcorn.
