Paramount revises offer for Warner Bros. to include Larry Ellison’s personal guarantee of $40.4 billion in equity financing
Paramount previous offer shot down
Paramount is continuing to throw money at Warner Bros. in order to sway them from reconsidering the deal made with Netflix, which was announced earlier this month. Warners previously deemed their original offer to be not as “superior” to Netflix. “Following a careful evaluation of Paramount’s recently launched tender offer, the Board concluded that the offer’s value is inadequate, with significant risks and costs imposed on our shareholders,” said Samuel A. Di Piazza, Jr., chair of the Warner Bros. Discovery board of directors, in a statement. “This offer once again fails to address key concerns that we have consistently communicated to Paramount throughout our extensive engagement and review of their six previous proposals. We are confident that our merger with Netflix represents superior, more certain value for our shareholders and we look forward to delivering on the compelling benefits of our combination.”
Paramount revises their offer with Larry Ellison’s personal guarantee
The Hollywood Reporter is now revealing that Paramount is still not taking “no” for an answer, and the studio has revised their counteroffer. The revision keeps the $30 on each share, but now also resolves many of the issues that the Warner Bros. board previously had with the deal. Per THR, the biggest addition to the revised offer is that “David Ellison’s father and Oracle founder, Larry Ellison, has agreed to personally backstop the $40.4 billion in equity financing connected to the deal, and he has agreed not to revoke the Ellison family trust or adversely transfer assets in the trust while any deal is pending.”
David Ellison said in a statement, “Paramount has repeatedly demonstrated its commitment to acquiring WBD. Our $30 per share, fully financed all-cash offer was on December 4th, and continues to be, the superior option to maximize value for WBD shareholders. Because of our commitment to investment and growth, our acquisition will be superior for all WBD stakeholders, as a catalyst for greater content production, greater theatrical output, and more consumer choice. We expect the board of directors of WBD to take the necessary steps to secure this value-enhancing transaction and preserve and strengthen an iconic Hollywood treasure for the future.”
Additionally, Paramount has upped its termination fee to $5.8 billion, matching Netflix, and extended the end date for the tender offer to Jan. 21, 2026. This would give the Warner shareholders a bit of a lengthier time frame to reconsider their decisions and Paramount may even extend it if they feel the need to.
No sweat coming from Netflix
With all the posturing done by Paramount, Netflix has previously said that they expected an aggressive response. The streaming giant remains confident that their deal will still go through. “I don’t want to speculate on what’s going to happen from here,” Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters told CNBC on Wednesday. “We are pretty happy that we’ve presented a pretty strong deal. And I think the Warner Bros. Discovery Board sent a pretty clear message that they believe that this is the best value. It’s the most certain path forward. Our deal structure is clean, it’s certain.”
The post Paramount revises offer for Warner Bros. to include Larry Ellison’s personal guarantee of $40.4 billion in equity financing appeared first on JoBlo.