\n<\/p>\n
David Ellison\u2019s Paramount Skydance is not giving up in its aggressive campaign to acquire Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), launching a hostile bid for the entertainment company despite the announcement on Friday that Netflix had agreed to buy its studio and streaming operation.<\/p>\n
Netflix\u2019s bid for WBD\u2019s storied Hollywood movie studio, as well as its premier HBO cable network, valued the company at $82.7bn. But it did not agree to acquire WBD\u2019s traditional television assets, including the news network CNN and the Discovery channel.<\/p>\n
Paramount\u2019s all-cash tender offer sent directly to shareholders on Monday morning would be for the entire company, and puts a total enterprise value of $108.4bn on WBD, a major premium to its stock price.<\/p>\n
In making its case to shareholders, Paramount claimed its acquisition of the company provides significantly better value for shareholders, and would be much likelier to survive regulatory scrutiny. WBD said it would \u201ccarefully review and consider\u201d the bid, and advise its shareholders on how to respond within two weeks.<\/p>\n
David Ellison and his father, the billionaire tech mogul Larry Ellison, whose family is financially backing the offer, are both friendly with the Trump administration, which had previously indicated that it supported a Paramount purchase of WBD. Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, had even had early conversations with a senior Trump aide about what changes he might want to see at CNN.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump has praised recent changes at Paramount since its acquisition by the Ellisons, including the selection of the heterodox writer Bari Weiss as editor in chief of CBS News. Paramount is also bringing back the Rush Hour franchise for a fourth film, reportedly at the request of Trump.<\/p>\n
Shortly before the Ellisons won regulatory approval for their takeover of Paramount, the firm agreed to pay $16m to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump, who had claimed a pre-election interview with the 2024 Democratic candidate for president, Kamala Harris, was falsely edited. Many legal experts had dismissed the lawsuit as \u201cmeritless\u201d and unlikely to hold up under the first amendment.<\/p>\n
A regulatory filing on Monday revealed that the Ellisons\u2019 bid for WBD was backed by outside funders including Affinity Partners, an investment fund founded by Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner; Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund; and the Qatar Investment Authority.<\/p>\n
In a statement, David Ellison called the Netflix deal \u201can 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\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer for their shares in the entire company,\u201d he said. \u201cOur 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ellison\u2019s Paramount Skydance had already made several offers that were rejected during the bidding process for WBD. The company said on Monday it was concerned that shareholders \u201cwere not presented [the] most compelling and superior transaction\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n Last week, attorneys for Paramount sent a letter to WBD suggesting the company was not fairly considering its offer. \u201cIt has become increasingly clear, through media reporting and otherwise, that WBD appears to have abandoned the semblance and reality of a fair transaction process, thereby abdicating its duties to stockholders, and embarked on a myopic process with a predetermined outcome that favors a single bidder,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n Netflix\u2019s proposed acquisition of the studio and streaming assets of WBD fleetingly provided some relief for some employees at CNN, who had been concerned about the prospects of a merger between the network and CBS News, now led by Weiss.<\/p>\n \u201cI think this is the best outcome for CNN for sure,\u201d a senior network producer told the Guardian after the Netflix acquisition was announced, describing a \u201cpalpable sense of relief\u201d at the network. But, the person added, \u201cthere is still a hell of a lot of anxiety around the Discovery Global spin-off and what comes next\u201d.<\/p>\n In a memo to CNN employees on Friday, the network\u2019s CEO, Mark Thompson, framed the deal as a positive. \u201cI\u2019ve been asked by many of you what today\u2019s news means for us,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAnd the answer is that it will enable us to continue to roll out our strategy to secure a great future for CNN by successfully navigating our digital transition.\u201d<\/p>\n Some employees at CBS News had also feared a merger with CNN\u2019s parent company, and that a tie-up could lead to significant job losses. \u201cA merger with CNN is the one thing that would make me genuinely worried about losing my job,\u201d one CBS News staffer said. (Paramount\u2019s offer on Monday noted that the combination of television networks would \u201cdramatically improve cash flow and increase efficiencies, leading to a division more capable of managing structural declines\u201d.<\/strong>)<\/p>\n Paramount\u2019s offer on Monday for WBD could re-ignite those concerns for employees at both networks. If the Netflix deal moves forward, however, CNN will be spun off \u2013 as planned \u2013 into a standalone company, encompassing WBD\u2019s traditional television networks, from Cartoon Network to TLC.<\/p>\n On a conference call with analysts, David Ellison did not answer a question about whether he would be interested in acquiring the television group by itself if the greater Netflix deal goes through.<\/p>\n On Sunday evening, before Paramount tabled its hostile bid, Trump had said he would be personally involved in the review for the Netflix-WBD transaction, which he said would have implications for competition considering Netflix\u2019s \u201cbig market share\u201d. But he had kind words for Netflix\u2019s co-chief executive Ted Sarandos, who visited the White House recently.<\/p>\n Several US politicians, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, and entertainment unions, however, had expressed strong reservations about the deal.<\/p>\n Because no television licenses would be transferred in a potential acquisition, the acquisition of WBD is very unlikely to be subject to the review of the Federal Communications Commission and its Trump-picked chair, Brendan Carr. But anti-trust concerns around any such deal would be reviewed by the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n \u201cParamount is highly confident in achieving expeditious regulatory clearance for its proposed offer,\u201d the company said on Monday, \u201cas it enhances competition and is pro-consumer, while creating a strong champion for creative talent and consumer choice.\u201d<\/p>\n The Ellisons\u2019 offer is set to expire at 5pm on 8 January, unless it is extended.<\/p>\n On the Monday call, David Ellison said the company\u2019s offers for WBD had not received a response. \u201cWe\u2019re here to fight for value \u2013 for our shareholders and for WBD shareholders,\u201d he said. \u201cThis transaction is about building more, not cutting back \u2026 Our proposal is superior to Netflix\u2019s in every dimension.\u201d<\/p>\n While Trump has been very supportive of the Ellisons\u2019 takeover of CBS News, he lashed out at the network and its new management on Monday morning for a 60 Minutes broadcast the night before, featuring the outgoing GOP House member Marjorie Taylor Greene, who told correspondent Lesley Stahl that many Republican legislators privately mocked Trump.<\/p>\n \u201cMy real problem with the show, however, wasn\u2019t the low IQ traitor, it was that the new ownership of 60 Minutes, Paramount, would allow a show like this to air,\u201d Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. \u201cTHEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP, who just paid me millions of Dollars for FAKE REPORTING about your favorite President, ME! Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" David Ellison\u2019s Paramount Skydance is not giving up in its aggressive campaign to acquire Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), launching a hostile bid for the entertainment company despite the announcement on Friday that Netflix had agreed to buy its studio and streaming operation. Netflix\u2019s bid for WBD\u2019s storied Hollywood movie studio, as well as its premier<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[20339,1532,2036,303,2037,6829,1372,4849,2035],"class_list":{"0":"post-36430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-108-4bn","9":"tag-bid","10":"tag-bros","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-discovery","13":"tag-hostile","14":"tag-launches","15":"tag-paramount","16":"tag-warner"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}