Paramount has appealed to the shareholders of Warner Bros Discovery to reject last week’s takeover attempt by Netflix and instead accept its own $108 billion offer.
The studio was one of three suitors for WBD alongside Comcast – owners of Universal and Sky – and Netflix.
Netflix’s $82bn bid, like Comcast’s, is for the studio and streaming business, which is being formed as part of the recently announced demerger, while Paramount is seeking to take control of the entire business.
The Netflix offer is worth $27.75 per WBD share, split between cash and shares in Netflix while Paramount is offering $30 per share entirely in cash.
With its bid rejected by the WBD board, Paramount has now gone public with its terms.
In a statement, Paramount CEO David Eillison said shareholders “deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer for their shares in the entire company.”
He added: “Ellison continued, “We believe our offer will create a stronger Hollywood. It is in the best interests of the creative community, consumers and the movie theater industry.
“We believe they will benefit from the enhanced competition, higher content spend and theatrical release output, and a greater number of movies in theaters as a result of our proposed transaction.
“We look forward to working to expeditiously deliver this opportunity so that all stakeholders can begin to capitalize on the benefits of the combined company.”
Paramount has launched a website setting out its full offer and the rationale behind it.
Since Friday there’s been considerable opposition to the Netflix/Warner tie-up, with multiple Hollywood unions setting out objections.
In many cases these are based on the streamer’s long established practice of limiting cinema runs of its original films, there concerns have also been expressed about the amount of power the combined entity would have in talent and workplace negotiations.