Paramount ‘offered Zaslav co-CEO role with Ellison’ amid ongoing WBD pursuit
Paramount reportedly offered to make David Zaslav its co-CEO and co-chairman alongside David Ellison in a bid to clinch Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) amid a flurry of takeover bids made between mid-September and mid-October.
That’s according to the New York Times (NYT), which on Wednesday said WBD has now rejected three separate bids from Paramount to acquire the entire company. The first of those came in mid-September, with Paramount tabling an offer of US$19 per share, before increasing the bid to US$22 per share and then, on October 13, upping the bid to US$23.50 per share.
All of those offers were rebuffed, including one that would have allowed Zaslav, the current president and CEO at WBD, to stay on as co-CEO and co-chairman, said the NYT, citing a letter sent by Ellison to WBD’s board of directors.
In the letter, Ellison pitched WBD’s board on why Paramount, of which he took control in August, represents the best option for shareholders. “We are confident that we are the best partner for WBD, with a combination of our two companies creating a scaled Hollywood champion to the benefit of both our companies’ shareholders, consumers and the entertainment industry at large,” Ellison wrote.
Ellison, who is the son of tech billionaire and world’s second richest man Larry Ellison, also argued that, from a regulatory perspective, Paramount is the best positioned of all the Hollywood studios or tech companies to buy WBD. Ellison Sr is also an ally of US president Donald Trump, whose administration has put heavy regulatory scrutiny on media mergers.
“Other potential acquirers of WBD – today or in the future – would need to overcome significant (perhaps insurmountable) hurdles given their dominant market positions,” he wrote.
The NYT report sheds new light on some of the events that led to WBD confirming this week that it is considering selling itself, either in whole or in parts.
WBD is in the midst of separating into two companies, one for its studio/streaming assets (Warner Bros) and the other for its global linear networks (Discovery Global).
WBD on Tuesday announced it was exploring a range of strategic options, including forging ahead with its planned separation (set to be completed by mid-2026), selling the entire company, or separate transactions for Warner Bros and/or Discovery Global. In addition, WBD said it was considering an “alternative separation structure that would enable a merger of Warner Bros and spin-off of Discovery Global to our shareholders.”
WBD claimed it had received “unsolicited interest” from “multiple” parties about acquiring all or parts of the company. Outside of Paramount, the identity of the other bidders is not known, but it appears that Comcast, Netflix, Apple and Amazon could all be interested.
On Tuesday, Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters played down, but did not dismiss, a potential bid for WBD’s studio and streaming assets. They did, however, reiterate that Netflix has “no interest in owning legacy media networks.”
WBD stock has been on the rise ever since The Wall Street Journal first reported that Paramount was preparing a bid on September 12. The share price has climbed more than 60% in that time, climbing to around US$20.50 per share on Wednesday after trading at less than US$12.50 before The Wall Street Journal’s initial report.
