Warner Bros. Discovery Receives Revised Paramount Bid
Warner Bros. Discovery has confirmed it received a revised acquisition proposal from Paramount Skydance, continuing the high-stakes consolidation battle in the U.S. media sector. WBD shares rose as the market awaits Paramount’s next move. The ongoing negotiations highlight the strategic value placed on content libraries and streaming platforms amid intense competition.
- The revised proposal from Paramount Skydance is an attempt to derail a pre-existing agreement for Netflix to acquire WBD's studio and streaming assets for $82.7 billion. Under that deal, WBD's linear networks like CNN and HGTV would be spun off into a new public company called Discovery Global. - Paramount Skydance's previous hostile bid was an all-cash offer of $30 per share, valuing the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery at $108.4 billion. WBD's board had previously rejected multiple offers from Paramount and recommended shareholders approve the Netflix transaction. - To make its revised offer more attractive, Paramount Skydance included financial incentives such as covering the $2.8 billion termination fee WBD would owe Netflix if it backs out of their agreement. The new terms also reportedly include a quarterly "ticking fee" of about $650 million if the deal's closing is delayed. - The Paramount Skydance bid is led by David Ellison, son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, and is financially backed by firms including RedBird Capital Partners and KKR. The financing structure for the $108.4 billion offer was reported to include $41 billion in new equity and $54 billion in debt commitments from institutions like Bank of America, Citi, and Apollo Global Management. - Private equity firm Apollo Global Management has also been a key player in media consolidation talks, having previously made an $11 billion offer for just Paramount's film and television studios. Sony and Apollo also reportedly teamed up for a $26 billion all-cash offer for all of Paramount Global. - If the WBD board deems the revised Paramount Skydance offer to be superior, Netflix will have a four-day window to submit a counter-proposal. A shareholder vote on the Netflix deal is scheduled for March 20. - As of early 2026, Paramount Global's market capitalization was approximately $7.44 billion, with an enterprise value of $20.21 billion. The company's balance sheet showed $2.74 billion in cash and $15.51 billion in debt.
