"Paramount is going straight to WBD's shareholders with an all-cash offer of $30 per share, and it noted that its offer provides shareholders $18 billion more cash than the Netflix deal, which offered $23.25 in cash and $4.50 in Netflix shares for a total of $27.75 per share. Paramount is bidding for all of WBD, while Netflix's deal with the company only includes its Hollywood studios and streaming business."
""We believe the WBD Board of Directors is pursuing an 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," Paramount CEO David Ellison said in a statement. Paramount's offer is backstopped with equity financing from the Ellison family and the private-equity firm RedBird Capital, in addition to $54 billion of debt commitments from Bank of America, Citi, and Apollo."
"Netflix came out on top on Friday after winning a bidding war against Paramount and Comcast, but Paramount's hostile bid is sure to drag on the battle for one of Hollywood's most iconic studios, a fight which has already stretched out for months. Netflix's proposed deal has already raised antitrust questions, as it would combine two of the most popular streaming platforms into one. Additionally, President Donald Trump has said the deal "could be a problem" because of the size of the combined companies' market share."
Paramount Skydance initiated a hostile $108.4 billion all-cash offer to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, proposing $30 per share and asserting $18 billion more cash to shareholders than Netflix's bid. Paramount aims to buy all of WBD, while Netflix's agreement covers only WBD's studios and streaming business. The Paramount bid is backed by equity from the Ellison family and RedBird Capital plus $54 billion of debt commitments from Bank of America, Citi and Apollo. Both the Paramount and Netflix scenarios raise antitrust and regulatory concerns, and the Netflix-WBD agreement includes reciprocal breakup fees of $5.8 billion and $2.8 billion.
Read at TechCrunch
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]