Warner Bros. Discovery stood tall on the world stage at the Golden Globes last Sunday by winning top awards in both movies, with ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, and in TV, with THE PITT. The most-talked-about studio of the year won 9 Golden Globes, more than any of its rivals. This represents another clear example of why WBD is so valuable to the industry, while the bidding war continues between Netflix and Paramount to acquire its sister studio.
Speaking of acquisitions, this was a relatively good week for Netflix in its pursuit of WBD, with a number of key developments that strengthened its case. First, Deadline reported that Netflix is strongly considering revising its offer to make it an all-cash bid, which would be more attractive to WBD shareholders than Netflix’s original bid, which comprised a mixture of cash and stock assets. An all-cash bid from Netflix would undercut one of the biggest selling points of Paramount’s competing offer, which was already an all-cash proposal at $30 per share.
Paramount suffered an additional setback this week when a judge denied Paramount’s request for an expedited ruling on its appeal to the court to force WBD to disclose the factors that its board of directors considered before accepting Netflix’s offer. Paramount responded to this ruling by extending the previously set deadline of January 21 for WBD shareholders to accept its tender offer, saying that WBD shareholders needed to understand how the company’s board came to accept the Netflix proposal. Paramount is making its case directly to WBD shareholders that its proposal is preferable to Netflix’s.
