WASHINGTON, Jan 7 (Bernama-dpa) -- Warner Bros Discovery's (WBD) board of directors on Wednesday unanimously rejected Paramount Skydance's takeover offer, saying "it is not in the best interests of WBD and its shareholders" and is not a "superior proposal" over Netflix's bid, reported German Press Agency (dpa).
It recommended that shareholders approve the streaming giant Netflix's bid for the company.
"The Board unanimously determined that the Paramount's latest offer remains inferior to our merger agreement with Netflix across multiple key areas," chair of the Warner Bros Discovery board, Samuel A Di Piazza Jr, said in a statement.
"Paramount's offer continues to provide insufficient value, including terms such as an extraordinary amount of debt financing," the statement said. "Our binding agreement with Netflix will offer superior value at greater levels of certainty."
Netflix's offer, made on December 5, 2025, is to acquire Warner Bros, including its film and television studios, HBO Max and HBO, in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at US$27.75 per WBD share, with a total enterprise value of approximately US$82.7 billion.
Under the Netflix bid, the planned separation of WBD's Global Linear Networks business, Discovery Global, would continue. That is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year.
On Dec 8, the US media conglomerate Paramount Skydance said it was countering Netflix’s US$82.7 billion offer with a bid valued at US$108.4 billion, in what is being seen as a hostile takeover attempt.
Paramount's proposed transaction is for the entirety of WBD, including the Global Networks segment. The bid is primarily backed by the Ellison family and RedBird Capital in addition to debt fully committed by Bank of America, Citi and Apollo Global Management.
David Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder and US President Donald Trump supporter Larry Ellison, is the chairman and chief executive of Paramount. Whoever buys WBD would be subject to federal approval.
-- BERNAMA-dpa
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