Paramount goes hostile in bid for Warner Bros., challenging a $72 billion offer by Netflix

NEW YORK (AP) – Paramount on Monday launched a hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, initiating a potentially bruising battle with Netflix for the company behind HBO, CNN and DC Studios, and the right to reshape much of the nation’s entertainment landscape.

Emerging just days after Netflix reached a $72 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros., the takeover attempt means Paramount will go straight to Warner shareholders with a bid worth about $74.4 billion, or $30 per share in cash.

Unlike Netflix, Paramount is also offering to buy the cable television assets of Warner Bros. Paramount executives said their offer is worth about $18 billion more than the competing bid from Netflix, which they said is based on an “illusory prospective valuation” of those cable assets.

It is the same bid that Warner Brothers had earlier rejected in favor of the offer from Netflix.

Paramount criticized the Netflix offer, saying it exposes shareholders “to a protracted multi-jurisdictional regulatory clearance process with an uncertain outcome along with a complex and volatile mix of equity and cash.”

Paramount said it had submitted six proposals to Warner Bros. over a 12-week period.

“We believe our offer will create a stronger Hollywood. It is in the best interests of the creative community, consumers and the movie theater industry,” Paramount Chairman and CEO David Ellison said in a statement. “We believe they will benefit from the enhanced competition, higher content spend and theatrical release output, and a greater number of movies in theaters as a result of our proposed transaction.”

On Friday, Netflix struck a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, the Hollywood giant behind “Harry Potter” and HBO Max. The cash and stock deal is valued at $27.75 per Warner share, giving it a total enterprise value of $82.7 billion, including debt.

The transaction is expected to close in the next 12 to 18 months, after Warner completes its previously announced separation of its cable operations. Not included in the deal are networks such as CNN and Discovery.

But President Donald Trump said Sunday that the Netflix deal “could be a problem” because of the size of the combined market share.

The Republican president said he will be involved in the decision about whether the federal government should approve the deal.

Usha Haley, a Wichita State University professor who specializes in international business strategy, said Paramount’s ties to Trump are notable. Ellison is the son of longtime Trump supporter Larry Ellison, the world’s second-richest person.

“He said he’s going to be involved in the decision. We should take him at face value,” Haley said of Trump. “For him, it’s just greater control over the media.”

In October, Paramount said it bought the news and commentary website The Free Press and installed its founder, Bari Weiss, as the editor-in-chief of CBS News, saying it believes the country longs for news that is balanced and fact-based.

It was a bold step for the television network of Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and “60 Minutes,” long viewed by many conservatives as the personification of a liberal media establishment. The network placed someone in a leadership role who has a reputation for resisting orthodoxy and fighting “woke” culture.

Paramount’s tender offer is set to expire on Jan. 8, 2026, unless it’s extended.

Shares of Warner Bros. and Paramount jumped between 5% and 6% at the opening bell Monday. Shares of Netflix edged lower.

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AP National Writer Matt Sedensky and AP Media Writer David Bauder contributed to this story.