Paramount Launches $108B Hostile Bid for Warner Bros. Discovery
The all-cash tender offer at $30 per share challenges a rival bid from Netflix, escalating the battle for media industry dominance.
Paramount Global, backed by Skydance Media, has launched an aggressive $108.4 billion hostile tender offer to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, a dramatic move that aims to consolidate the legacy media landscape and challenge streaming giants Netflix and Disney.
The all-cash offer of $30 per share for WBD stock represents a stunning 139% premium to the company's undisturbed share price as of September 10, 2025, according to the acquirer's official announcement. Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery surged in response, trading near the $29 mark, indicating market anticipation of a potential deal. Meanwhile, Paramount's shares saw a decline as investors weighed the massive financial undertaking.
This bold play directly confronts a competing proposal from Netflix, which Paramount leadership criticized as having "inferior and uncertain value" and a "protracted multi-jurisdictional regulatory clearance process." In a statement, Paramount's CEO David Ellison positioned the bid as a decisive alternative, offering WBD shareholders a "superior all-cash offer" that provides a "more certain and quicker path to completion."
The strategic rationale behind the audacious bid is the creation of a "scaled Hollywood champion." A merger would combine Paramount's assets, including the Paramount+ streaming service, CBS, and its film studio, with Warner Bros. Discovery's formidable portfolio, which includes HBO, the Max streaming service, and the Warner Bros. film and television library. The combined entity would possess a content arsenal vast enough to compete more effectively for viewer attention and subscription dollars.
However, the financial structure of the deal underscores the scale of the gamble. Paramount Global, with a market capitalization of approximately $7 billion, is orchestrating a takeover valued at over 15 times its own market worth. The transaction's financing, however, appears robust. According to the press release, the offer is not subject to a financing condition and is backstopped by equity from the Ellison Family and RedBird Capital, along with $54 billion in debt commitments from a consortium of banks including Bank of America, Citi, and Apollo. This structure signals a high-leverage bet on future synergies and market power.
Analysts have long speculated about a consolidation wave in the media sector as companies struggle to achieve profitability in the fiercely competitive streaming market. A successful acquisition would grant the new company significant scale, a stronger position in sports rights, and potentially lucrative direct-to-consumer bundling opportunities. The proposal from Paramount argues that the combination would be a "stronger supporter of movie theaters" while also possessing "attractive DTC potential."
The hostile nature of the bid now puts the board of Warner Bros. Discovery under intense pressure to respond. It must evaluate the certainty of Paramount's all-cash offer against any existing proposal from Netflix and the standalone value of the company. The coming weeks will likely see a flurry of activity as WBD's management weighs its fiduciary duty to shareholders, with the specter of a prolonged and costly bidding war now firmly on the table. The tender offer is scheduled to expire on January 8, 2026, setting a clear timeline for a resolution to this high-stakes battle for the future of Hollywood.