Warner Bros Discovery Board Rejects Rival Bid From Paramount (reuters.com)
- Reference: 0180410855
- News link: https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/12/17/1445248/warner-bros-discovery-board-rejects-rival-bid-from-paramount
- Source link: https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/warner-bros-discovery-board-rejects-rival-bid-paramount-2025-12-17/
> Paramount has been in a race with Netflix to win control of Warner Bros, and with it, its prized film and television studios, HBO Max streaming service and franchises like "Harry Potter." After Warner Bros accepted the streaming giant's offer, Paramount launched a hostile offer to outdo that bid.
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> In a letter to shareholders on Wednesday, the Warner Bros board wrote that Paramount had "consistently misled" Warner Bros shareholders that its $30-per-share cash offer was fully guaranteed, or "backstopped," by the Ellison family, led by billionaire and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.
[1] https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/25/12/08/1429227/paramount-skydance-launches-hostile-bid-for-wbd-after-netflix-wins-bidding-war
[2] https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/warner-bros-discovery-board-rejects-rival-bid-paramount-2025-12-17/
good (Score:3, Insightful)
Probably a good thing, handling CNN to the Ellisons before midterms would have really bad outcomes
Re: (Score:3)
[1]Exactly that [msn.com] is a big part of the goal - do the same thing to CNN that has happened more widely at CBS.
It is a Hungary-style media rollup attempt. Buy up, intimidate out or (eventually) sure competing voices into submission.
The land of the free, baby.
[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ellison-reportedly-said-trump-team-he-d-change-cnn-if-he-bought-warner-bros/ar-AA1RZaDu
Re: (Score:2)
Not just the Ellison's either,. We'd have a major American news network partially owned by the Saudi royal family who aren't exactly what I would call good people.
Re: (Score:1)
> Probably a good thing, handling CNN to the Ellisons before midterms would have really bad outcomes
It wouldn't do jack shit, because no one watches CNN. Travelers used to be stuck with their network, as CNN used to [1]pay airports to display their network [iheart.com], but that ended in 2021 as mobile devices took away that information monopoly, and CNN lost that ad revenue. CNN has [2]half the viewers of MS Now, and only a quarter the viewers of Fox [adweek.com]. CNN is way past their glory days, and essentially has become an Also Ran . And cable news doesn't have nearly the reach that the traditional US Big 3 news networks does. All t
[1] https://www.iheart.com/content/2021-01-17-cnn-shutting-down-airport-television-network/
[2] https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/week-of-dec-1-2025-cable-news-ratings/
Re: (Score:2)
Well spoken.
Re: (Score:2)
> Probably a good thing, handling CNN to the Ellisons before midterms would have really bad outcomes
Regardless of any potential changes to CNN (which are going to happen in any deal as CNN itself understands it needs to change to survive), the transaction would not have closed until after the midterms.
Re: (Score:2)
Hey someone who actually "gets it"! But don't forget about the WEF's "Great Reset". And Klaus Schwab saying "You will own nothing and like it." And the WEF telling world governments to not allow private ownership of automobiles.
Streaming Trash (Score:2)
If only they could dump all of their streaming library into a single location and pay the owner of the content based on viewership. There are a lot of reasons this would never happen, but anything that could prevent another production like "The Get Down" would be an improvement.
Re:Streaming Trash (Score:5, Informative)
I thought movie studios were forbidden to own movie theaters, but now I just learned those rules were repealed in 2020, so I guess nobody cares anymore about the antitrust implications of total end-to-end control of movie production and distribution.
Re: (Score:2)
> I thought movie studios were forbidden to own movie theaters, but now I just learned those rules were repealed in 2020, so I guess nobody cares anymore about the antitrust implications of total end-to-end control of movie production and distribution.
Antitrust stopped being a thing we enforced a long, long time ago. It's honestly surprising how long it took to reach the movie industry, considering the way we've been letting the business world consolidate different industries over the last few decades. Sure, there's some chatter about it here or there among the political class, but for the most part it's half a step forward, twenty steps back when it comes to enforcement.
Re: (Score:2)
It is funny to reflect on the old payola radio scandals vs nowadays where it'd just be kind of an expected base level of graft. Before too long foreigners visiting here will get the same sort of reminders/training we used to get about how their local anticorruption procurement laws prohibit paying the sorts of bribes that are locally considered normal business practices.
Re: (Score:2)
Movie theaters are less relevant than ever, we just need to flip the idea for the modern age: movie studios cannot own streaming platforms.
Re: (Score:2)
> dump all of their streaming library into a single location
Why a single location? Do you want one movie theater in town?
Perhaps we need to look back at the antitrust cases, a major one involving Paramount. But now it's Netflix becoming the vertically integrated giant. Let multiple streaming companies, theaters, CATV operators and DVD producers bundle and sell studio content as they see fit. Thus allowing the consumer to select the package that is best for them.
Absent that, either Paramount or Netflix should be required to spin off their streaming business from pr