Paramount vs Netflix: Warner Bros Acquisition Bid

BarcelonaAfter the punch on the streaming table of Netflix, which announced three days ago that it was buying Warner Bros Discovery for 62 billion euros, Paramount Skydance has not remained still. The platform has announced, through a statement, that it is counterattacking with a higher offer, of 93 billion euros ($108 billion). In a statement, Paramount explained that it is offering $30 in cash per share, which represents a 139% premium over the price of Warner titles of $12.54 on September 10, 2025. The company also specifies that it is going directly to Warner Bros. shareholders and asking them to reject the deal with Netflix.

“The offer is strategically and financially attractive to Warner Bros shareholders and offers a superior alternative to Netflix, which offers lower and uncertain value and exposes WBD shareholders to a protracted multi-jurisdictional regulatory clearance process with an uncertain outcome along with a complex and volatile mix of capital and cash,” Paramount said in the statement. Surreptitiously, the company charges against Warner for not paying attention to the six proposals that have been offered to them in the last 12 weeks. That’s why Paramount is now addressing shareholders directly, assuring them that the proposed deal “offers superior value and a safer and faster closing process.” In fact, the company has clearly criticized Netflix’s offer, arguing that it “exposes Warner shareholders to a lengthy regulatory clearance process in multiple jurisdictions with an uncertain outcome, along with a complex and volatile mix of stock and cash.” The transaction is expected to close in the next 12 to 18 months, once Warner completes the separation of its cable operations that it announced a few weeks ago.

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With this move, Paramount enters the war of titans to appropriate a vast catalog of series and films. Among the first is the entire library of the HBO Max platform — which is part of Warner and includes series titles like game of thrones i The Big Bang Theory— and among the latter, cinema classics like Casablanca, Kane Crost and the saga of Harry Potter. If the Paramount deal goes through, the company could also acquire the CNN news channel. Instead, in the proposed deal with Netflix, CNN was left out of the acquisition and Warner envisioned it becoming an independent company that would encompass the company’s other traditional television networks.

In the event that CNN passes into the hands of Paramount, this would involve putting the informational independence of the channel at risk, since Paramount is owned by Skydance, owned by David Ellison, who is the son of one of Trump’s biggest allies: Larry Ellison. He dethroned Elon Musk a few months ago and became the richest person in the world thanks to his company, the technology company Oracle. In fact, Donald Trump himself was skeptical this Sunday of Netflix’s proposal to buy Warner and said that “it could be a problem”, paving the way for Paramount to win the battle. However, the US president had kind words for Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, who visited him before announcing the company’s deal to acquire Warner.

Over the past year, David Ellison has been acquiring companies and studios to grow his startup company, Skydance. Last July it absorbed Paramount for $8 billion, after scrupulous scrutiny by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). With that purchase, the CBS network passed into Ellison’s hands.