Paramount raises bid for Warner Bros, intensifies Hollywood takeover battle

The fight for Warner Bros. is one of the biggest media deals in years and whichever company wins, it will likely have great influence on the entertainment industry going forward

By Lucas Shaw

 

Paramount Skydance Corp. raised its offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., extending the long-running battle for one of Hollywood’s iconic studios, according to people familiar with the matter.

 

The new, unspecified bid improves on the $30-a-share, all-cash proposal that Paramount took directly to Warner Bros. shareholders on Dec. 8 and addresses some of the company’s concerns with previous Paramount bids, according to the people, who asked to not be identified because the details aren’t public. Those concerns include greater certainty of Paramount financing.

 

The media giant agreed in December to sell its film and TV studios and HBO business to Netflix Inc. for $27.75 a share. That deal involves a spinoff of Warner Bros. cable networks like CNN and TNT. 

 

Warner Bros. reopened talks with Paramount for a seven-day period ending Monday. If the Warner Bros. board deems the new Paramount offer as superior to the current agreement, Netflix will have four days to respond.

 

Paramount previously said that Oracle Corp. billionaire Larry Ellison would backstop more than $40 billion in equity that his family and other investors were putting into the deal. Paramount also agreed to other requests, such as allowing Warner Bros. to run its business as it chooses before a deal closes.

 

Paramount Skydance, which was formed in August as the result of a combination with filmmaker David Ellison’s Skydance Media, sees buying Warner Bros. as an opportunity to transform itself quickly into a Hollywood powerhouse. A victory for Netflix would be a crowning achievement for the industry’s great disruptor, making it possibly the most dominant player ever in entertainment history.

 

Shares of Warner Bros. were little changed at $28.98 in extended trading after briefly rising. Paramount was up 1.3 per cent, while Netflix was fractionally higher.

 

The fight for Warner Bros., the century-old studio behind films from Casablanca to Batman and hit TV series like Friends, is one of the biggest media deals in years. Whichever company wins, it will likely have great influence on the entertainment industry going forward.

 

The potential sale has stirred controversy from Hollywood to Washington, where lawmakers, filmmakers and others worry about concentration in the media business and the impact of a merger on jobs.