No shock here. We knew Paramount Skydance and the Ellisons wouldn’t go down without a fight, and they are getting downright hostile about it. Today, Paramount launched a hostile takeover bid to derail the recent Netflix-Warner Bros. deal worth $72B. Paramount has skipped the board entirely and gone straight to the shareholders with a massive $108.4B offer, amounting to about $30 per share.
The Paramount deal comes with a lot of backing; $24B from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi wealth funds. There’s also Jared Kushner, son-in-law of Donald Trump, investing through his Affinity Partners label. Considering Trump is a big supporter of the Ellisons and Paramount, and recently teased “we’ll see what happens” when asked about approving the Netflix-Warner Bros. deal, this is unlikely to be a coincidence.
Paramount is going big on this one. Unlike Netflix, they want to purchase ALL of Warner Bros., including the TV assets with channels such as CNN. They are making the bet that shareholders will see the higher offer, and the simpler resolution, and choose them over Netflix. It might be a smart gamble. Fingers crossed it doesn’t go through because the Trump White House doesn’t need more power in the media than it already has.
