Media Giants Clash: Paramount Launches $108.4 Billion Hostile Bid For Warner Bros. Discovery

Paramount Skydance has fired the starting pistol on a rare, public fight for Hollywood's future, launching a hostile, all-cash $108.4 billion (approximately £81 billion) offer for Warner Bros. Discovery that goes straight to shareholders and aims to derail Warner's board-backed agreement with Netflix.

Paramount is pitching $30 (approximately £22.5) a share for the whole of WBD, including legacy linear networks that Netflix's narrower deal excludes. The move recasts a negotiated sale into an open bout between two titans with incompatible strategies for scale, assets and regulatory risk.

Paramount's Play: Cash Certainty And 'Whole Company' Control

Paramount frames its bid as cleaner, faster and richer: an all-cash tender covering studios, streaming and news and factual brands such as HBO, CNN and Discovery Channel, with committed financing reportedly spanning major banks and equity backers linked to the Ellison family, RedBird Capital and Middle Eastern sovereign funds. The message to investors is blunt: cash up front for full control, without carving up WBD's portfolio.

Netflix's Position: A Signed Deal And A Narrower Target

Warner's existing agreement with Netflix focuses on acquiring WBD's studio and streaming operations for an equity value of about $72 billion (approximately £54 billion), or roughly $82.7 billion (approximately £62 billion) including debt, leaving the cable networks behind.

That tighter scope reduces integration complexity for Netflix but hands Paramount an attack line: that a partial deal leaves stranded assets and prolongs regulatory timing. Markets have already begun to price the contest, with investors reassessing both clearance risk and the cost of escalation.

The Sale Process Turns Combative

Days before the tender, Paramount accused Warner of running a 'tainted' process that favoured Netflix, escalating the corporate rhetoric into a governance brawl as much as a bidding war.

In a letter to chief executive David Zaslav, Paramount's lawyers claimed the auction abandoned fairness and short-changed shareholders. Warner acknowledges the correspondence while maintaining its support for the Netflix agreement, but the letter reframes the fight as one of boardroom process versus shareholder democracy.

Strategy At Stake: Scale, IP And Distribution Muscle

Strip away the theatre and the strategic logic is plain. Paramount seeks end-to-end scale: a deeper film and series pipeline, premium brands, and global distribution spanning streaming and still-profitable linear channels.

Netflix wants creative control over a powerhouse studio to feed its global service while avoiding the ballast of cable. The victor will set the tempo for streaming economics, talent bargaining power and the value extraction from iconic IP, from DC and Harry Potter to HBO's prestige slate.

The Referees: Regulators And Timetables

Both scenarios will draw intense antitrust scrutiny. Paramount's 'all assets' approach concentrates studios, streaming and news under one roof; Netflix's plan welds the world's biggest streamer to a top-tier studio. Shareholders must weigh headline price against certainty and time value, including any break-fee exposure if Warner shifts course. Early commentary suggests multiquarter reviews either way, and market volatility reflects that uncertainty.

The Opening Bell Has Rung

This is now a straight fight: Paramount's cash-for-control versus Netflix's signed, selective deal. Warner's owners are in the judges' seats, and regulators will decide the scorecards. However the bout ends, the centre of gravity in global entertainment will shift.