PARRED

Warner Bros. Snubs Trump Pal’s $78B Buyout Bid

Netflix had already reached an agreement with the “Harry Potter” owners before rivals swooped in.

Warner Bros. Discovery has rejected a purchase offer from Paramount, saying Netflix’s bid is still the better option. Paramount made a hostile, all-cash approach for the entire Warner Bros. business of $77.9 billion, on Dec. 8 at $30 a share. Netflix, meanwhile, had already agreed to take its Studios and HBO Max streaming platform for $72 billion, a deal that executives at Warner still think is the better offer. On Wednesday, the board recommended that shareholders reject the Paramount bid, orchestrated by Chief Executive David Ellison and his father, Larry, a friend of President Donald Trump. Warner execs told investors that Paramount had “consistently misled” them, called the deal “illusory,” and said it posed a potential danger to the business if it were to accept. According to The Wall Street Journal, the letter of rejection filed by Warner Bros. said Paramount’s documents submitted in the bid “contain gaps, loopholes and limitations that put you, our shareholders, and our company at risk.” It added, “The terms of the Netflix merger are superior,” adding, “The [Paramount] offer provides inadequate value and imposes numerous, significant risks and costs on [Warner].”