Paramount (NASDAQ:PSKY) reaffirmed its $30-per-share cash offer for Warner Bros. Discovery on Thursday, resisting pressure to sweeten the deal even after WBD’s board dismissed the proposal as a risky "leveraged buyout."
The standoff has become a high-stakes valuation war.
Paramount CEO David Ellison argued Thursday that his $108 billion all-cash offer is "unmistakably superior" to WBD’s existing agreement to sell its studio and streaming assets to Netflix.
Paramount’s analysis now values the Netflix deal at $27.42 per share—a figure that has slid as Netflix’s stock price has dipped below the "collar" range intended to protect the deal’s value.
"Our offer clearly provides WBD investors greater value and a more certain, expedited path to completion," Ellison said in a statement.
Paramount is urging WBD shareholders to bypass their board and tender their shares directly to the suitor by the January 21 deadline.
A central flashpoint in the dispute is the fate of WBD’s legacy cable networks, including CNN and TNT.
Under the Netflix plan, these assets would be spun off into a new entity called Discovery Global.
While WBD’s board claims this "linear stub" holds significant future value, Paramount has assigned it a value of $0.00.