Team, As we begin the year, I want to share an update on where things stand and where we are focused. Following a thorough review, the Warner Bros. Discovery Board of Directors has completed its consideration of Paramount Skydance's most recent proposal. After careful evaluation, the Board has determined not to pursue that proposal.
Warner Bros. Discovery board members delivered a blunt rejection of Paramount's revised hostile takeover bid on Wednesday, warning investors the offer was inadequate and still too risky. In a letter to shareholders on Wednesday, obtained and first reported by CNN, the WBD board rejected Paramount's revamped bid, insisting it falls well short of the certainty offered by its existing deal with Netflix. To effect the transaction, it intends to incur an extraordinary amount of incremental debt more than $50 billion through arrangements with multiple financing partners, the board wrote.
I think the people that have run CNN for the last long period of time are a disgrace. I think it's imperative that CNN be sold. Because you certainly wouldn't want to put people-, just leave those people with some money, good money at CNN so that, you know, they could spend even more money spreading poison. Because it's lies, it's a disgrace.
Paramount Pictures' official X account was hacked on Tuesday, briefly rebranded as a proud arm of a fascist regime message as it attempts a hostile takeover of Warner Bros Discovery. For several minutes, the pointed message was emblazoned on the account's bio. It quickly vanished restored to The official X account for Paramount Pictures but not before screenshots ricocheted across the internet.
The all-cash offer of $30 per share works out to a valuation of more than $108 billion, or an equity valuation of $78.7 billion, for WBD's entire operation, putting it in the upper echelons of hostile takeover attempts in recent decades. In fairness, the $82.7 billion deal, or $72 billion equity valuation, from streaming giant Netflix is also pretty massive. That was the one WBD's board had agreed on, and it excluded certain pieces of the business.
