Paramount Skydance has offered even more money for Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), adding pressure on the media giant to accept a bid it has so far rejected.
The entertainment conglomerate behind film production company Paramount Pictures and TV network CBS, announced a revised, best and final offer of $31 per WBD share and additional fees – an improvement on its initial $30 tender.
Such a share bid has led WBD to say it could beat the existing Netflix offer, hotting up the fight for control of WBD, which counts comic book filmmakers DC Studios, TV network HBO and news channel CNN among its brands.
A statement from WBD said the upped Paramount Skydance offer “could reasonably be expected to lead to a company superior proposal”.
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Competing to acquire the film and TV production as well as the streaming components of WBD, is streaming giant Netflix.
While Netflix has consistently been the preferred bidder and has signed an agreement with WBD, it boosted its offer to $27.75 (£20.63) cash per WBD share.
The competition, however, is for slightly different things. Paramount Skydance wants to acquire the entirety of WBD, not just a production and streaming spin-off.
The best and final offer from Paramount Skydance comes at the end of a week extension granted by the WBD board, with the permission of Netflix.
Netflix now has four days to submit a revised proposal or quit its quest to acquire part of WBD.
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Paramount Skydance, headed by the son of billionaire Trump supporter Larry Ellison, launched a hostile takeover attempt, ramped up in recent weeks by legal threats.
The bidder directly approached WBD’s shareholders and subsequently announced the launch of legal action to force the release of financial data.
It has also threatened to nominate directors at WBD’s annual meeting in an effort to get board approval for its takeover.
Why does it matter?
A merger of WBD and either Paramount Skydance or Netflix would be one of the biggest media deals in history, with significant impacts on TV, filmmaking and the possible future of the cinema.
Netflix has expressed scepticism over the future of cinema theatres, with the films it produces tending to be released directly to streaming without a cinema showing.
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Its increased ownership of film production companies could mean fewer or shorter duration theatre runs for films.
If Paramount Skydance is successful in its takeover attempt, it would own CNN, as well as CBS News, sparking concern about concentrating news services within a small number of companies.
