Dec. 17, 2025 "Warner Bros. asks investors to reject takeover bid from Paramount Skydance": Today I found this article on CBC:
Warner Bros. is telling shareholders to reject a takeover bid from Paramount Skydance, saying that a rival bid from Netflix will be better for customers.
"We strongly believe that Netflix and Warner Bros. joining forces will offer
consumers more choice
and value,
allow the creative community to reach even more audiences
with our combined distribution
and fuel our long-term growth,"
Warner Bros. said Wednesday.
"We made this deal because their deep portfolio of
iconic franchises,
expansive library
and strong studio capabilities
will complement
— not duplicate
— our existing business."
Paramount went hostile with its bid last week, asking shareholders to reject the deal with Netflix favoured by the board of Warner Bros.
Paramount is offering $30 US per Warner share to Netflix's $27.75 US.
Paramount's bid isn't off the table altogether.
While Wednesday's letter to shareholders means Paramount's is not the offer favoured by the board at Warner Bros.,
shareholders can still decide to tender their shares in favour of Paramount's offer for the entire company — including cable stalwarts CNN and Discovery.
Unlike Paramount's bid,
the offer from Netflix does not include buying the cable operations of Warner Bros.
An acquisition by Netflix, if approved by regulators and shareholders,
will close only after Warner completes its previously announced separation of its cable operations.
Paramount on Wednesday affirmed its offer from last week and urged Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders to tell the company they prefer Paramount's "superior offer."
"I have been encouraged by the feedback we have received from WBD shareholders who clearly understand the benefits of our offer,"
Paramount CEO and chairman David Ellison said.
"We will continue to move forward to deliver this transaction, which is in the best interest of WBD shareholders, consumers, and the creative industries."
Takeover bids face regulatory scrutiny
Paramount has claimed it made six different bids that the Warner leadership rejected before announcing its deal with Netflix on Dec. 5. Only after that did it take its offer directly to Warner's shareholders.
"The board reviewed Paramount Skydance's most recent unsolicited tender offer with the same care and discipline it has applied throughout this process, including its review of multiple prior proposals," Warner Bros. said in its statement.
"The board's evaluation followed a thorough and consistent process and is grounded in its fiduciary duties."
Beyond a greenlight from shareholders, both takeover bids face tremendous regulatory scrutiny.
A change in ownership at Warner would drastically reshape the entertainment and media industry — impacting
movie-making,
consumer streaming platforms
and, in Paramount's case, the news landscape.
Critics of Netflix's deal say that combining the massive streaming company with Warner's HBO Max would give it overwhelming market dominance,
whereas the Paramount+ streaming service is far smaller.
"This is something that we've heard for a long time — including when we started the streaming business,"
Warner Bros. said in a securities filing on Wednesday.
"Our stance then and now is the same — we see this as a win for the entertainment industry, not the end of it."
Bids from both Netflix and Paramount have raised alarm for what they could mean for film and TV production.
While Netflix has agreed to uphold Paramount's contractual obligations for theatrical releases, critics have pointed to its past business model and reliance on online releases.
Yet Paramount and Warner Bros. are two of the "big five" legacy studios left in Hollywood today.
Paramount's attempt to buy Warner's cable networks and news business would also bring CBS and CNN under the same roof.
In addition to further accelerating media consolidation,
that could raise questions about shifts in editorial control
— as seen at CBS News both leading up to and following
Skydance's $8 billion US purchase of Paramount, which it completed in August.
U.S. President Donald Trump has already been vocal about his future involvement in the deal, indicating that politics will play a role in regulatory approval.
Trump previously said that Netflix's deal "could be a problem" because of the potential for an outsized control of the market.
The Republican president also has a close relationship with Oracle's billionaire founder Larry Ellison, who is the father of Paramount's CEO, whose family trust is also heavily backing the company's bid to buy Warner.
Affinity Partners, an investment firm run by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, previously said it would be investing in the Paramount deal, too. But on Tuesday, the firm announced that it would be dropping out of the bid.
Still, Trump also has a tendency to make decisions based on gut and his personal mood. He has continued to publicly lash out at Paramount over editorial decisions at CBS's 60 Minutes.
"For those people that think I am close with the new owners of CBS, please understand that 60 Minutes has treated me far worse since the so-called 'takeover,' than they have ever treated me before," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday. "If they are friends, I'd hate to see my enemies!"
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/warner-bros-investors-takeover-bid-paramount-9.7019160
Jan. 7, 2026 "Warner Bros. rejects revised Paramount bid, tells shareholders to stay with Netflix": Today I found this article on CBC:
Warner Bros. Discovery's board again rejected a takeover bid from Paramount
and told shareholders on Wednesday to stick with a rival offer from Netflix.
In a letter to shareholders, Warner Bros.' board said Paramount's revised $108.4-billion US hostile bid amounted to a risky leveraged buyout that investors should reject.
The company's board said Paramount's offer hinges on
"an extraordinary amount of debt financing"
that heightens the risk of closing.
It reaffirmed its commitment to streaming giant Netflix's $82.7-billion deal for the film and television studio and other assets.
"Our binding agreement with Netflix will offer superior value at
greater levels of certainty,
without the significant risks
and costs
Paramount's offer would impose on our shareholders,"
Warner Bros. Discovery chair Samuel Di Piazza Jr. said in a statement.
Paramount and Netflix have been vying to win control of Warner Bros.,
and with it, its prized film and television studios
and extensive content library.
Its lucrative entertainment franchises include
Harry Potter,
Game of Thrones,
Friends
and the DC Comics universe,
as well as coveted classic films such as
Casablanca
and Citizen Kane.
Warner's leadership has repeatedly rebuffed Paramount's bids
and urged shareholders to instead back its the sale of the streaming and studio business to Netflix.
Late last month, Paramount announced an "irrevocable personal guarantee" from Oracle founder Larry Ellison — the father of Paramount CEO David Ellison
— to back $40.4 billion in equity financing for the company's offer.
Paramount also increased its promised payout to shareholders to $5.8 billion if the deal is blocked by regulators, matching what Netflix already put on the table.
Paramount's financing plan would saddle the smaller Hollywood studio with $87 billion in debt once the acquisition closed,
making it the largest leveraged buyout in history,
the Warner Bros. board told shareholders after voting against the $30-per-share cash offer on Tuesday.
The letter accompanied a 67-page amended merger filing where it laid out its case for rejecting Paramount's offer.
In it, the Warner Bros. board said it met on Dec. 23 to review Paramount's amended offer and noted some improvements,
including Ellison's personal guarantee
and a higher reverse termination fee of $5.8 billion US,
but it found "significant costs" associated with Paramount's bid compared with a Netflix deal.
Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters welcomed Warner Bros.' decision on Wednesday, saying it recognizes the streaming giant's deal
"as the superior proposal that will deliver the greatest value to its stockholders, as well as consumers, creators and the broader entertainment industry."
Paramount did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company's hostile bid is still on the table, and Warner shareholders currently have until Jan. 21 to "tender" their shares.
The battle for Warner and the value of each offer grows complicated because Netflix and Paramount want different things.
Netflix's proposed acquisition includes only
Warner's studio
and streaming business,
including its legacy TV and movie production arms
and platforms like HBO Max.
But Paramount wants the entire company
— which, beyond studio and streaming,
includes networks like CNN and Discovery.
If Netflix is successful,
Warner's news and cable operations would be spun off into their own company, under a previously announced separation.
A merger with either company will attract tremendous antitrust scrutiny. Due to its size and potential impact, it will almost certainly trigger a review by the U.S. Justice Department, which could sue to block the transaction or request changes. Other countries and regulators overseas may also challenge the merger.
Politics are also expected to come into play under U.S. President Donald Trump, who has made unprecedented suggestions about his personal involvement on whether a deal will go through.
And either deal would also send shockwaves throughout the entertainment industry, impacting
movie making
and distribution channels,
as well as the news media environment.
With files from Reuters
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/warner-bros-paramount-reject-bid-9.7036089
The other 2 blog posts of the week:
"Netflix to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery for $72B US"/ "Netflix-Warner Bros deal faces antitrust pushback even as company touts benefits"
https://badcb.blogspot.com/2026/02/netflix-to-acquire-warner-bros.html
"Paramount Skydance makes $108B hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery after Netflix move"/ "Would Netflix buying Warner Bros. kill movies in theatres?"
https://badcb.blogspot.com/2026/02/paramount-skydance-makes-108b-hostile.html
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Analyzing is an activity that highly suits Tracy Au.
She particularly enjoys understanding the links between data and being able to draw reliable conclusions.
It is important for her that conducting analyses be one of the key tasks in the projects that are entrusted to her, so she can feel truly fulfilled.
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