Warner Bros. has made its clear that Netflix is the partner it wants in its whopping acquisition deal, as the $83 billion deal that was agreed upon at the end of 2025 is still the one moving forward. This is even despite Paramount Skydance continuing to up its offers to significantly larger values, with the caveat that Paramount Skydance wants all of Warner Bros. whereas Netflix only wants the entertainment businesses.
The latest Paramount bid clocked in at a stunning $108 billion, but Warner Bros. almost instantaneously shut it down due to not wanting to sell its entire business and also because it was fearful of Paramount funding methods, as the majority of this $108 billion figure would have come from a loan levied against the two companies. Paramount was not happy and continues to argue that Warner Bros. reasons for rejecting its proposal so quickly are unfair and incorrect.
Now, Paramount has revealed that it has filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. at the Delaware Chancery Court, with this aimed at disclosing some of the more obscure parts of what Warner Bros. wants from an acquisition while attempting to shine a light on the Netflix deal.
As per The Independent, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has stated the following.
"WBD has failed to include any disclosure about how it valued the Global Networks stub equity, how it valued the overall Netflix transaction, how the purchase price reduction for debt works in the Netflix transaction, or even what the basis is for its 'risk adjustment' of our $30 per share all-cash offer.
"We filed suit this morning in Delaware Chancery Court to ask the court to simply direct WBD to provide this information so that WBD shareholders have what they need to be able to make an informed decision as to whether to tender their shares into our offer."
It's unclear what will come from this lawsuit as it seems like Warner Bros. is very focussed on the Netflix deal first and foremost and doing what it can to avoid Paramount's hostile takeover. The situation is foggy all the same because, as Ellison puts it, "WBD has provided increasingly novel reasons for avoiding a transaction with Paramount, but what it has never said, because it cannot, is that the Netflix transaction is financially superior to our actual offer."