Days after Netflix offered to buy Warner Brothers for $125 billion, rival studio Paramount has stepped in with a blockbuster $163 billion proposal.
As part of its pitch to shareholders Paramount – which own Australia’s Channel 10 – has slammed the Netflix offer as an “inferior proposal” and said its deal would lead to a “stronger Hollywood”.
Whoever buys Warner Bros will cement their place as an entertainment goliath.
But both offers have serious competition concerns. A Netflix-Warner deal would include HBO Max meaning two of the globe’s biggest streaming platforms would be under one roof. A Paramount-Warner deal would see two of the biggest US film studios under one roof.
The wildcard is Donald Trump. He has suggested a Netflix tie up “could be a problem” due to competition concerns. But on Monday, he also lashed out at Paramount.
Last week, Netflix announced it had agreed to buy the studios and streaming division of Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) for $US83 billion ($125 billion).
This would see Netflix take on HBO, the HBO Max streaming service and Warner Brothers’ film studios.
But it would leave out WBD’s other assets including the Discovery and CNN TV channels.
Paramount’s blockbuster $163bn offer
Then on Monday, US time, Paramount launched a hostile bid of $US108bn ($163bn) in cash for all of WBD. It would bring Paramount’s Mission: Impossible franchise together with Warner Bros’ Harry Potter series.
One of the financiers in the Paramount bid is Affinity Partners, the investment firm led by Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. That could potentially mean CNN, a news network of which Mr Trump is critical of, being partly owned by someone in the Trump family.
Paramount’s takeover proposal does not have the backing of the WBD board, who have sided with Netflix. So Paramount will have to convince shareholders to defy Warner’s wishes. That is unless Paramount can persuade the WBD board to swap horses and back it over Netflix.
‘Inferior proposal’ from Netflix
Paramount said there was likely to be less hurdles to its offer being given the green light by competition regulators globally.
“WBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer for their shares in the entire company,” David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount, said.
“Our public offer … provides superior value, and a more certain and quicker path to completion.
“We believe the WBD Board of Directors is pursuing an inferior proposal which exposes shareholders to a mix of cash and stock, an uncertain future trading value of the (Discovery) Global Networks linear cable business and a challenging regulatory approval process”.
It said that a combined global market share of Netflix with HBO Max would be 43 per cent and would “entrench its monopoly”, and that “creates a clear risk of higher prices for consumers, lower pay for content creators and talent and the destruction of American and international theatrical exhibitors”.
A major fear of Netflix’s bid prevailing is it would be less committed to giving Warner Bros films a sustained cinema run — preferring to quickly get major movies on TV screens.
Under a Paramount deal, HBO Max would be merged with the Paramount+ streaming service. But the latter is smaller and wouldn’t face the scrutiny of a Netflix-HBO tie up.
Paramount has said its deal would create a “meaningful competitor” to Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime.
Trump card
The US president’s view on the matter could be key. He has been very opinionated about media ownership.
“I’ll be involved in that decision,” said Mr Trump on Sunday of a potential Netflix deal. He In the process, he was being quite clear regulators would answer to him.
He added that Netflix already commands “a very large market share” and that the deal “could be a problem”.
But he also praised Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos who recently met with him at the White House, declaring, “He’s done one of the greatest jobs in the history of movies”.
Skydance Media bought Paramount Global in 2025 to form Paramount Skydance. CEO Mr Ellison is the son of the co founder of IT firm Oracle Larry Ellison who is close to Mr Trump.
Just prior to the Skydance takeover, Paramount Global paid Mr Trump $US16 million ($24m) to settle a lawsuit from the US president that claimed a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris had been deceptively edited.
Few thought such a claim would stand up in court, but the settlement was seen by some as a capitulation to Mr Trump and an effort to get the takeover signed off by regulators under the thumb of the White House.
It’s therefore been thought Paramount would be a shoo-in to buy Warner Bros.
But on Monday, Mr Trump went on a tirade against Paramount because 60 Minutes, which airs on its CBS TV network, interviewed Republican politician Marjorie Taylor Green who is now critical of Mr Trump.
“My real problem with the show … was that the new ownership of 60 Minutes, Paramount, would allow a show like this to air,” he ranted.
“THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP, who just paid me millions of Dollars for FAKE REPORTING about your favourite President, ME!
“Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!”
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