Paramount rips Warner’s sale ‘process’ as it reveals 2-year-long pursuit, escalating bids before going hostile

Paramount Skydance’s tender offer for Warner Bros. Discovery emerged from months of fitful courtship, a shifting media landscape, and a high‑stakes bidding war that ultimately pitted the studio behind “Top Gun: Maverick” against streaming giant Netflix for control of one of Hollywood’s crown jewels. The company’s tender offer regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, filed hours after Paramount launched a hostile bid worth $108 billion (or $77.9 billion in equity), laid out a detailed chronology in which Paramount repeatedly tried to lure Warner Bros., to no avail. Netflix and Warner Bros. agreed a deal worth nearly $83 billion ($72 billion in equity) on Friday.

The filing revealed Paramount CEO’s last-ditch text message to WBD counterpart David Zaslav at roughly 4pm ET on December 4, the day before Netflix ultimately announced its deal, as previously reported by the Financial Times. “Daivd [sic], I appreciate you’re underwater today so I wanted to send you a quick text. Please note when you next meet as a board we wanted to offer you a package that addressed all of the issues you discussed we [sic] me,” David Elliso...