Live look at the WBD board discussing Paramount’s hostile bid…

(Source: Imgflip) 

As expected, the Warner Bros. Discovery board just told Paramount to kick rocks. 

The board unanimously recommended shareholders reject Paramount Skydance’s $30-per-share hostile bid and stick with the Netflix deal instead. Same $30 that David Ellison has been waving around like it’s an engagement ring. Same bid WBD already ignored once. Now it goes to shareholders sometime in spring or summer 2026, which in deal time is basically a year of staring contests and passive-aggressive press releases.

(Source: CNBC) 

Per WBD chairman Samuel Di Piazza, the Netflix merger represents “superior, more certain value.” Translation: We trust Netflix’s cash-and-stock offer worth $72 big ones more than Davids nepo cash. And honestly, that seems to be the entire ball game here. 

In short, Paramount has always been about more cash, fewer regulators, keep the cable junk Netflix doesn’t want, and build a “real competitor” to Netflix. The problem is that the math only works if Larry Ellison actually stands behind the check. So far… he hasn’t. And especially not now, as Bonnie Blue Owl just gave Larry the worst financial blue job imaginable. 

(Source: Giphy) 

Case in point: The WBD board didn’t mince words in its letter. Yes, Paramount claims the bid is “fully backstopped.” No, most of that money isn’t actually coming from the Ellison family. A big chunk was third-party financing, including Gulf sovereign wealth funds and, until recently, Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners…which quietly exited stage left this week. That didn’t go unnoticed. In fact, Di Piazza went on CNBC and basically said the quiet part out loud: “We weren’t confident one of the richest people in the world would be there at closing.”

Meanwhile, Netflix is sitting there with a signed deal, breakup fees baked in, and no need to duct-tape together financing from five continents. If regulators kill it, Netflix pays $5.8B. If WBD walks, it owes Netflix $2.8B. Either way, someone’s writing a very large check. So yeah… as the WBD board stated… this really wasn’t a hard choice. That said though… that doesn’t mean Paramount is necessarily done. Ellison has already said $30 wasn’t his best and final. He’s clearly hoping shareholders do the math themselves and decide more cash now beats “strategic certainty” later. The board left the door cracked open by saying they’d like to see more Ellison family money directly backing any revised offer.

(Source: X) 

Which brings us to the real question: Does Larry Ellison actually want Warner Bros. Discovery… or does he just want Netflix to sweat? Because if Dad steps in and backstops the whole thing? This gets interesting fast. If not, this turns into a long, awkward game where Paramount keeps insisting it’s serious while WBD keeps pointing at Netflix and saying, “Cool story, but we don’t want no scrubs.” Meaning, for now, Netflix stays the only honest women in town here. And somewhere David Ellison has that same stupid look on his face Roman Roy had after the rocket explosion. Until next time, friends… 

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News holds positions in Netflix as mentioned in the article.