We thought that $82.7 billion was a big number. But, well, we just hadn’t met $108 billion yet. The battle to own Warner Bros. felt like it had come to an end when Warner Bros. Discovery elected to move forward with Netflix’s bid to purchase Warner Bros. But it’s not over yet. Paramount Skydance has now launched a hostile takeover of Warner Bros., with a $108 billion bid. Paramount claims that its bid for ownership of Warner Bros. is “a strategically and financially compelling offer to WBD shareholders” and “provides a superior alternative to the Netflix transaction, which offers inferior and uncertain value and exposes WBD shareholders to a protracted multi-jurisdictional regulatory clearance process with an uncertain outcome along with a complex and volatile mix of equity and cash.” That’s a lot of legal terminology, but we feel like Paramount just called Netflix cheap and shoddy. Yikes!
Playing to the crowd, Paramount also promises to release more than 30 movies in theaters and maintain “healthy traditional windows.” Shortly after it was announced that Netflix would buy Warner Bros., the company now infamously implied it would shorten traditional theatrical periods for movie releases. There seemed to be some intimation they might perhaps, in time, do away with them completely. This was not well-received by the general public. You can read Paramount’s full proposal to buy Warner Bros. here.
All this said, we’re not totally sure that there’s a better choice here. And ultimately, if Warner Bros. Discovery wants to move forward with Netflix, they don’t have to take more money offered by Paramount. Ultimately, we hope for what we always hope for. That in the end, the consumer, and not the shareholders, will benefit. In a world where our entertainment is mixed up in corporate interests, it can be hard to push through work that is truly visionary, fresh, and reflective of the diverse and varied world we all exist in. Whether Netflix or Paramount ends up owning Warner Bros., we can only cross our fingers that the sale takes us forward and not backward.