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The Warner Bros. acquisition drama is far from over. After Netflix announced that it would acquire the studio for $82.7 billion on Friday, Paramount-Skydance has submitted its own hostile bid.
President Trump, meanwhile, suggested this weekend that the resulting "very big market share...could be a problem" for Netflix.
This morning, Paramount offered Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) shareholders $30 per share, bringing the total deal value to $108.4 billion. However, Netflix's offer doesn't include all WBD assets, while Paramount wants the "entirety of WBD, including the Global Networks segment."
For Netflix's offer to proceed, WBD's cable networks must spin off into a separate publicly traded company by Q3 2026. Netflix also needs regulatory and WBD shareholder approval. Paramount argues that Netflix's deal is unlikely to be approved, whereas its own should go through.
"Netflix transaction provides WBD shareholders with inferior and uncertain value, a protracted and uncertain multi-jurisdictional regulatory clearance process, a complex and volatile mix of equity and cash, and ownership of Global Networks as a standalone overleveraged company whose future trading value is uncertain," Paramount claims.
Before Netflix won the bid, Paramount claimed in a letter to WBD CEO David Zaslav that WBD had "embarked on a myopic process with a predetermined outcome that favors a single bidder."
Paramount claims that it had submitted six proposals in the last 12 weeks, but WBD "never engaged meaningfully with these proposals, which we believe deliver the best outcome for WBD shareholders." Monday's hostile bid was made to ensure WBD's shareholders and board of directors "have the opportunity to pursue this clearly superior alternative," it adds.
Netflix says it expects the deal to close in 12-18 months. As CNBC notes, the Department of Justice will likely weigh in, a process that could take up to a year.
On the red carpet at the Kennedy Center Honors this weekend, President Trump said he would "be involved" in the merger approval process. He suggested that the combined market share of Netflix-WBD "could be a problem," but had warm words for Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, who met with Trump in the Oval Office last month. "He's fantastic," Trump told the press.
Still, Trump is also friendly with billionaire Larry Ellison, whose son David Ellison is now CEO of Paramount-Skydance.
Sarandos, meanwhile, is "highly confident" about the regulatory process. "This deal is pro-consumer, pro-innovation, pro-worker, it's pro-creator, it's pro-growth. And our plans here are to work really closely with all the appropriate governments and regulators," he said on Friday.
The deal also faces opposition from the Writers' Guild and other Hollywood unions.
Netflix is the largest streaming platform in the world, with over 300 million subscribers; HBO Max ranks fourth with 128 million. If the deal goes through, Netflix's portfolio will contain series such as Harry Potter, The Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones, Friends, The Sopranos, The Wire, and more.