David Ellison-led Paramount Skydance (NASDAQ:PSKY) launched a hostile bid worth $108.4 billion for Warner Bros Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) on Monday, in a last-ditch effort to outbid streaming giant Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) and create a content powerhouse. A regulatory filing on Monday revealed that the HBO owner’s lack of response fueled Paramount’s push.
Paramount said it made six proposals over twelve weeks, each increasing in value, culminating in the fully financed $30 per share offer. Despite this, Warner Bros. never engaged with Paramount and chose instead to commit to what the Comedy Central owner called “an obviously financially inferior transaction with extraordinary regulatory risk and a longer timeline to a possible closing.”
