As investors pick sides in Netflix vs. Paramount, analysts say a renewed Warner Bros. bidding war looks inevitable
Analysts at Bloomberg on Wednesday said Paramount’s WBD hostile takeover offer could go as high as $35 per share.
Which company will eventually win the rights to “Entourage” remains up in the air on Wednesday, as the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery reignites amid takeover attempts by both Netflix and Paramount Skydance.
The race had seemed to be over last week, when Netflix and WBD agreed to an $83 billion deal for the latter’s streaming and film studio assets. Then on Monday, a frustrated Paramount took its offering directly to Warner Bros. shareholders in a $30-per-share hostile takeover bid.
Though Netflix’s deal faces a wall of opposition — including apparent skepticism from the Trump administration — Paramount’s offering may not come at enough of a per-share premium for investors to bite (though some have already expressed interest). As such, both companies have communicated that they have the ability to boost their offers for Warner Bros., per Bloomberg reporting.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts wrote Wednesday that another bidding war between Paramount and Netflix “looks inevitable.” Paramount could “justify going as high as $35” per share, the analysts wrote.
That extra $5 per share could make a big difference, according to reporting from the New York Post’s Charlie Gasparino, who wrote that WBD CEO David Zaslav has told people involved in the deal that a $35-per-share offer could “upend” Netflix’s deal.
Should Warner ultimately decide to back out of its deal with Netflix and embrace Paramount’s offer, it (or, effectively, Paramount) would owe Netflix $2.8 billion. Netflix’s side of the breakup fee is even steeper at $5.8 billion.
