©Courtesy of Paramount Skydance
Paramount Skydance has announced its intention to sue Warner Bros. Discovery as part of its takeover strategy. According to Variety, the suit, filed on Monday in Delaware Chancery Court, is designed to force WBD to disclose details of its $83 billion deal with Netflix.
Meanwhile, Warner’s board just rejected Paramount’s latest all-cash offer of $30 per share for its operations. Warner Bros. Discovery called Paramount’s lawsuit “meritless” in a statement that read in part: “Despite six weeks and just as many press releases from Paramount Skydance, it has yet to raise the price or address the numerous and obvious deficiencies of its offer. Instead, Paramount Skydance is seeking to distract with a meritless lawsuit and attacks on a board that has delivered an unprecedented amount of shareholder value. In spite of its multiple opportunities, Paramount Skydance continues to propose a transaction that our board unanimously concluded is not superior to the merger agreement with Netflix.”
Thus far, WBD’s board of directors has turned down eight consecutive offers initiated by Paramount’s CEO David Ellison, backed by his father Larry Eilison, the co-founder of Oracle Systems, The WBD board instead chose to make a deal with Netflix, which would pay $27.75 per share for WBD’s film and TV operations, including HBO, HBO Max, and its games division. The Netflix deal would take effect in the third quarter of 2026, once WBD had spun off its Discovery Global assets, which include CNN, TBS, HGTV, the Food Network, and Discovery+.
In his most recent letter to Paramount shareholders, David Ellison wrote: “The best outcome for you and for us would be if WBD’s Board would exercise the right it has under the Netflix Agreement to engage with Paramount. If it does so, we will be open and constructive to secure the best path forward for WBD and each of you. We have demonstrated our willingness to listen carefully to any feedback we receive from WBD’s Board and to respond by offering reasonable solutions – and that remains our mindset and approach.”
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