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, which Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison said Monday never got a response from Warner Bros. Discovery. The offer is backstopped with equity financing from the Ellison family and the private-equity firm RedBird Capital as well as $54 billion in 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 5% higher in premarket trading Monday. Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery were up about 6%. Shares of Netflix were slightly lower.
On Friday, Netflix announced a deal to acquire WBD’s studio and streaming assets for $72 billion. 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.
Paramount has repeatedly argued to the WBD board of directors that keeping Warner Bros. Discovery whole was in the best interest of its shareholders.
Paramount executives also plan to argue their deal will have a much shorter regulatory approval process given the company’s smaller size and friendly relationship with the Trump administration, according to people familiar with the matter.
“We’ve had great conversations with the President about this, but I don’t want to speak for him,” Ellison said Monday.
Netflix’s proposed acquisition has already raised antitrust questions, in particular for combining two of the most dominant streaming platforms. CNBC reported Friday that the Trump administration was viewing the deal with “heavy skepticism,” and President Donald Trump said Sunday the market share considerations could pose a “problem.”
Netflix agreed to pay Warner Bros. Discovery $5.8 billion if the deal is not approved, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Friday. Warner Bros. Discovery said it would pay a $2.8 billion breakup fee if it decides to call off the deal to pursue a different merger.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.