The media war between Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix, and Paramount is raging on.
Paramount Skydance’s CEO, David Ellison, sent a letter to WBD shareholders on Wednesday, urging them to tender their shares in support of Paramount’s bid for WBD.
“It is not too late to realize the benefits of Paramount’s proposal if you choose to act now and tender your shares,” Ellison said in the letter.
On Friday, Netflix announced that it would acquire WBD for $72 billion, after WBD rejected Paramount Skydance’s offers and proceeded with a sale to Netflix. But on Monday, Paramount launched a hostile bid for WBD, for $30 per share.
In the letter, Ellison also slammed WBD’s advisors for not giving equal weight to Paramount’s offer, compared to Netflix’s, and described the sales process as being “opaque.”
“To suggest that we are not ‘good for the money’ (or might commit fraud to try to escape our obligations), as certain reports have speculated, is absurd,” he said.
He said that WBD advisors “never picked up the phone or typed out a responsive text or email to raise any question or concern or to seek any clarification about either the trust or our equity commitment papers.”
Ellison added that WBD did not grant Paramount a “single ‘real time’ negotiating session,” and had “sprinted towards a deal with Netflix.” He said WDB ignored texts from him and his advisors in which they said their $30-per-share offer was not their best and final one.
Representatives for WBD did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider about Ellison’s accusations in the letter.
After Paramount launched the hostile bid, Ellison pitched the deal to his own staff in an internal memo on Monday, as seen by Business Insider. He told his staff that the combination of Paramount and WBD would be a “powerful opportunity to strengthen both companies and the entertainment industry as a whole.”
Business Insider previously reported that Ellison said at a Tuesday UBS event that he knew why WBD could not accept his latest offer.
“If they accept the offer exactly as it is today, right, then they’re admitting breach of fiduciary duty, so I don’t think they can just take that,” Ellison said.
The bid is partially financed by the wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi.
The media war has not escaped the notice of President Donald Trump, who said he would be involved in the deal. He said on Sunday that the combined market share of Netflix and WBD “could be a problem.”
