Warner Bros. Discovery will reportedly tell its shareholders to reject a hostile takeover bid by Paramount and instead back Netflix’s offer.
Netflix bid $82.7 billion for WB’s streaming and studio arms, but Paramount tried to gazump the deal with a larger offer straight to shareholders. The deal is politically charged: US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner backed the Paramount deal, although he has now pulled his support, and Trump is close to Paramount CEO David Ellison.
WB is concerned about Paramount’s ability to pay, despite Ellison’s father, billionaire Larry, agreeing to backstop the deal. Any merger will be investigated by regulators, although Netflix said that even when combined with WB, its market share would be less than YouTube’s.