According to Deadline, within days of its first offer, Warner Bros. Discovery has declined Paramount Skydance’s second offer to acquire the entertainment company. Paramount will decide on its next move.
According to Deadline, various sources confirmed that the offer came in at $24 per share, which is about $4 more than the initial offer from about a week earlier. A representative from both companies declined to comment when approached. Within two to three weeks, the two companies will report their quarterly earnings results.
According to Deadline, the rejected Paramount bid was reported by The New York Post. WBD followed its buffer announcement with confirmation that the home of HBO remains for sale as it plans to move forward with the split next year, separating the studio and streaming companies from linear television. The result of the split will be two standalone companies, Warner Bros. and Discovery Global. There has also been speculation on Wall Street that Paramount is expected to prevail, given its CEO, David Ellison‘s, relationship with President Trump.
This past year, Trump settled a lawsuit with Paramount that he lodged against 60 Minutes over the alleged bias editing of an interview with former Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Many suspect the settlement was part of quid pro quo. However, Trump’s FCC Head, Brendan Carr, denied that the lawsuit had any influence on the merger’s approval.
Deadline also reported that Greg Peters, the CEO of Netflix, would not place a bid, nor would Comcast, which also owns MSNBC, due to antitrust laws in Washington that they would need to overcome.
According to Deadline, the price of Warner Bros. Discovery has risen exponentially since David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount, first closed the deal merging Skydance with the CBS owner on August 7. Warner Bros. was once a bargain stock, but the price has now doubled, rising 11%. This equals a three-year high for the company.