WBD rejects Paramount offer again in favor of Netflix deal

The Warner Bros. Discovery board on Wednesday once again unanimously recommended that WBD shareholders reject a hostile takeover offer from Paramount Skydance.

The board said it continued to believe the Paramount bid is “inferior” to a previously announced deal with Netflix to buy WBD’s studio and streaming business for $72 billion.

In the days following the announcement of that deal, Paramount launched its hostile bid, taking directly to shareholders an offer of $30 per share, all-cash for the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery, including its TV networks.

WBD’s board made an initial recommendation to reject the offer, and Paramount subsequently made another push for the coveted assets. In late December Paramount guaranteed the backing of billionaire Larry Ellison, the father of Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, as a clear response to questions raised by WBD’s board.

WBD board chairman Samuel Di Piazza previously told CNBC’s David Faber that the board had concerns about the backing of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

In an amended offer late last year, Paramount said Larry Ellison had agreed not to revoke the family trust or adversely transfer its assets during a pending transaction. However, Paramount Skydance stopped short of upping the amount of its bid.

“PSKY has repeatedly failed to submit the best proposal for WBD shareholders despite clear direction from WBD on both the deficiencies and potential solutions,” the WBD board said in a letter to shareholders Wednesday.

“The WBD Board, management team and our advisors have extensively engaged with PSKY representatives and provided it with explicit instructions on how to improve each of its offers. Yet PSKY has continued to submit offers that still include many of the deficiencies we previously repeatedly identified to PSKY, none of which are present in the Netflix merger agreement, all while asserting that its offers do not represent its ‘best and final’ proposal,” the board continued.

Paramount first showed interest in acquiring all of Warner Bros. Discovery’s assets in September. The company made three takeover offers before Warner Bros. Discovery kicked off a formal sale process, inviting other bidders into the fold.

Representatives for Paramount didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.