PSKY Offers Higher Bid For WBD

Paramount Skydance has submitted a higher bid for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), intensifying its effort to derail the company's agreed-upon deal with Netflix, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The new offer improves on Paramount's prior $30-per-share all-cash proposal (valuing the entire company at $108.4 billion) and addresses Warner Bros.' concerns over financing certainty. Specific details of the revised price and terms were not immediately disclosed.

Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to review the updated Paramount bid while continuing to recommend the Netflix transaction to shareholders. If the board deems Paramount's offer superior, Netflix—its chosen partner—has the right to match it within four days.

Netflix previously agreed to acquire Warner Bros.' studios and streaming assets (including HBO Max and franchises like "Harry Potter" and "Game of Thrones") for $27.75 per share in cash, totaling about $82.7 billion. The deal excludes cable networks like CNN and HGTV, which would spin off into a separate entity called Discovery Global, potentially adding shareholder value (though Paramount has dismissed the spinoff as effectively worthless).

The bidding war escalated after activist investor Ancora Capital pressured Warner Bros. to engage with Paramount, threatening to vote against the Netflix deal and hold the board accountable. Warner Bros. had rejected an earlier enhanced Paramount proposal and set a February 23 deadline for a "best and final" offer.

Paramount's bid is backed by Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, while Netflix has ample cash reserves to potentially raise its offer.