Paramount is sticking by its $30 per share tender offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, arguing in a statement Thursday morning that its all-cash bid remains “superior” to the deal that WBD signed with Netflix, and urging WBD shareholders to back its bid.
“Our offer clearly provides WBD investors greater value and a more certain, expedited path to completion,” Paramount CEO David Ellison said in a statement. “Throughout this process, we have worked hard for WBD shareholders and remain committed to engaging with them on the merits of our superior bid and advancing our ongoing regulatory review process.”
WBD’s board officially rejected Paramount’s revised bid, which included a personal guarantee from Oracle founder Larry Ellison, earlier this week, arguing that it still did not address all their concerns.
In its announcement Thursday, Paramount said that it had “diligently and constructively addressed each concern raised by WBD,” pushing back on the claims made by the other company. It also included a financial analysis of the Discovery Global spinout that argued that it should have “no equity value,” but that at the very least it should trade at a discount to Versant, which began trading this week and saw its share price fall by double digits (Versant has noted that because index funds are forced to sell their shares in the company, the price should stabilize at a more realistic price in the next few weeks).
Paramount’s decision to stand by its offer will likely mean that it will try to move forward and convince a majority of shareholders to tender their shares. The company has set a Jan. 21 date for the tender to expire, though it can extend it.
