Paramount Skydance (PSKY) announced on Monday a bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) in an all-cash deal worth $30 per share, or roughly $108.4 billion, as the company moves to top Netflix’s (NFLX) deal struck last week to acquire the storied studio.
Paramount stock rose more than 6% after the announcement, while Warner Bros. stock rose as much as 7%.
Paramount’s bid on Monday would see the company acquire all of Warner Bros.’ assets.
On Friday, Netflix agreed to acquire Warner Bros.’ TV, film, studios, and streaming division for $72 billion — roughly $27.75 per share — in a cash-and-stock deal that would see Warner Bros. shareholders receive $23.35 per share, along with $4.50 in Netflix common stock. Netflix stock fell as much as 4.5% on Monday.
Read more about today’s market action.
The tentative deal between Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix, agreed to by the boards of both companies, has yet to receive approval under the federal government’s antitrust review process, where success is far from guaranteed.
A combined Netflix–WBD would control roughly a third of US streaming activity, according to data from JustWatch, a platform that measures streaming engagement across US services, setting up ripe conditions for a drawn-out and fiercely critical deal review from the Justice Department.
President Trump has already flagged potential antitrust questions about the deal, adding fuel to concerns about regulatory opposition. “Well, that’s got to go through a process, and we’ll see what happens,” Trump said at an event on Sunday. “But it is a big market share. It could be a problem.”
Taking advantage of what it sees as a still-open window of opportunity, Paramount’s Monday morning bid is the latest in a line of attempts by David Ellison’s company to acquire the storied Hollywood entity.
By mid-October 2025, Paramount had made three unsuccessful and unsolicited proposals for Warner Bros., culminating in a $58 billion offer at $20 per share.
All three approaches were rejected by Warner Bros., which is led by Hollywood mogul David Zaslav. The company saw the offers as too low and doubted that Ellison could actually raise the capital needed to get a deal over the finish line, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Ellison’s argument with Monday’s offer is simplicity.
In raising commitments for its new offer at nearly double the value of its original play, Paramount sought to soothe Netflix’s directors and shareholders by proposing a “radical simplification” of its financing.
