On Monday, Paramount launched an all-cash tender offer to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, the Hollywood giant that also owns CNN, presenting a challenge to Netflix's own highly contested deal.
Paramount makes hostile bid for Warner Bros to rival Netflix
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The hostile offer sets up a bidding war between Paramount - whose CEO is David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, an ally of Donald Trump - and streaming behemoth Netflix, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
Netflix shocked the industry last week by announcing it had sealed an agreement to buy the Warner Bros. studio, drawing bitter reactions from voices in Hollywood worried about the future of their industry.
David Ellison's father Larry, one of the world's richest people, has put up the cash to pay for the buyout, with sovereign wealth companies from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi also investors.
Another investor is Affinity Partners, the private equity firm founded by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is close to the president and acted on his behalf in recent diplomatic missions on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
Trump weighed in on Sunday, saying Netflix's deal "could be a problem" as it would be left with a huge market share of the film and TV industry.
In a break from usual practice, Trump said he would be "involved" in the government's decision to approve the deal over fair competition concerns, instead of leaving the question solely in the hands of the Department of Justice or Federal Trade Commission, as is usually the case.
"We're really here to finish what we started," David Ellison, who is also chairman of Paramount, told CNBC as his company made a sixth offer for Warner Bros. since a bidding war began in September.
Unlike Netflix's offer, Paramount's latest bid includes the buyout of cable channels such as CNN, TNT, TBS and Discovery - which would be added to its group of TV assets like CBS, MTV and Comedy Central.
The offer values the entertainment giant at $108.4 billion and represents a 139 percent premium over Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)'s September stock price of $12.54, when the bidding war began.
Paramount in a statement called Netflix's bid, which values Warner Bros. studios at nearly $83 billion, "inferior and uncertain."
"WBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer," Ellison said.
Netflix declined a request for comment from AFP.
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