The entertainment industry has been thrown into chaos after Paramount Skydance launched a hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), dramatically challenging a previously announced deal between WBD and streaming behemoth Netflix. Paramount’s audacious, all-cash offer is valued at $108.4 billion for the entire WBD company, including its cable TV business, directly overriding Netflix’s accepted proposal for WBD’s studio and streaming assets, which was valued at $82.7 billion.
Netflix had emerged victorious on Friday from a weeks-long bidding war, securing an agreement to acquire WBD’s storied film studios, HBO, and the streaming service Max. Paramount, led by CEO David Ellison, wasted no time, publicly appealing directly to WBD shareholders on Monday with a superior, all-cash tender of $30 per share, compared to Netflix’s mixed cash-and-stock offer valued at roughly $27.75 per share.
This is not Paramount’s first attempt; the company has submitted six proposals over a 12-week timeframe to acquire WBD, alleging that the board never meaningfully engaged with their offers and favored Netflix in a “predetermined outcome”. By launching a hostile bid, Paramount is bypassing the WBD board, which advised shareholders to “take no action at this time”, and forcing shareholders to weigh the options themselves.
A key difference lies in the scope: Paramount’s bid covers the entire WBD company, including cable networks like CNN and Discovery, while Netflix’s deal focuses only on the high-growth studio and streaming assets. Paramount’s executives argue that their all-cash offer delivers “superior value, and a more certain and quicker path to completion,” especially due to its perceived easier path to regulatory approval.
The regulatory landscape is a significant factor, especially after US President Donald Trump weighed in on the Netflix deal, expressing major concerns about market dominance. Trump stated that Netflix already holds a “very big market share” and that combining with Warner Bros. would increase that “a lot,” adding, “It could be a problem”.
Paramount has seized on this, arguing that combining the No. 1 and No. 3 streaming services (Netflix and Max) is anti-competitive, positioning its own bid as being in the “consumer interest and viable for a healthy competitive market”. Paramount’s bid is backed by significant financing, including capital from private equity firms with close ties to the Trump administration.
The takeover battle now places immense pressure on WBD shareholders, who must decide between Netflix’s strategic, lower-priced deal for core assets and Paramount’s higher-priced, all-cash offer for the whole company, setting the stage for one of Hollywood’s most expensive and politically charged corporate showdowns.
