David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance isn’t backing down in its efforts to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. Today, the studio announced it has commenced an all-cash tender offer to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery for $30 per share.
The proposed transaction is for all of Warner Bros. Discovery, not just the studio & streaming division spin-off, which is what Netflix has entered a binding agreement to acquire for $72 billion (with an enterprise value of $82.7 billion).
Paramount says its offer equates to an enterprise value of $108.4 billion (including assumption of debt). In announcing the hostile takeover bid, Ellison says in a statement (via Variety:
“WBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer for their shares in the entire company. Our public offer, which is on the same terms we provided to the Warner Bros. Discovery Board of Directors in private, provides superior value, and a more certain and quicker path to completion.
We believe the WBD Board of Directors is pursuing an inferior proposal which exposes shareholders to a mix of cash and stock, an uncertain future trading value of the Global Networks linear cable business and a challenging regulatory approval process. We are taking our offer directly to shareholders to give them the opportunity to act in their own best interests and maximize the value of their shares”
Paramount said Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders can find additional information about Paramount’s proposal at StrongerHollywood.com.
According to the press release on that site, the offer is backstopped by Paramount’s “well-capitalised principal equity holders” (ie. the Ellison family), the private-equity firm RedBird Capital, and $54 billion of debt commitments from Bank of America, Citi and Apollo Global Management. The release makes no mention of Middle Eastern funds like Saudi Arabia’s PIF which reports on earlier news bids suggested were involved.
