Credit: Paramounts / Warner Bros

Warner Bros Discovery rejects $108 billion hostile Paramount bid again

Wed 7 January 2026 14:52, UK

Warner Bros Discovery has rejected the revised $108.4 billion hostile takeover bid by Paramount Skydance again after changes were made to the original offer. The battle to control the media conglomerate continues.

It was originally announced on December 17th that Warner Bros Discovery had rejected the offer from Paramount, opting to continue forward with the $82.7 billion deal agreed with Netflix.

At that time, Samuel A Di Piazza Jr, chair of the Warner Bros Discovery board of directors, said in a statement, “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.”

Paramount is controlled by the Ellison family. Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle, sought to disprove claims that Paramount had “consistently misled” investors by saying it had a “full backstop”, by agreeing to provide a personal guarantee worth over $40 billion.

Paramount said that this bold move was in an attempt to tackle Warner Bros Discovery’s “amorphous need” for financial flexibility.

Unlike Netflix, Paramount has bid for the entire company, including the Cartoon Network, the Discovery Channel, and CNN.

In a new statement shared on January 7th, Warner Bros Discovery wrote, “Your board unanimously determined that the amended offer remains inadequate, particularly given the insufficient value it would provide, the lack of certainty in Paramount Skydance’s ability to complete the offer, and the risks and costs borne by WBD shareholders should Paramount Skydance fail to complete the offer.”

Further, under the terms of the Netflix agreement, Warner Bros Discovery must pay a $2.8 billion breakup fee if it walked away from the agreement.

Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, co-CEOs of Netflix, said that their deal means, “Netflix and Warner Bros will bring together highly complementary strengths and a shared passion for storytelling.”

The Netflix deal is now expected to face strong regulatory scrutiny in the coming months.