#warner-bros-discovery

#warner-bros-discovery

Paramount Pictures' official X account was hacked on Tuesday, briefly rebranded as a proud arm of a fascist regime message as it attempts a hostile takeover of Warner Bros Discovery. For several minutes, the pointed message was emblazoned on the account's bio. It quickly vanished restored to The official X account for Paramount Pictures but not before screenshots ricocheted across the internet.

The all-cash offer of $30 per share works out to a valuation of more than $108 billion, or an equity valuation of $78.7 billion, for WBD's entire operation, putting it in the upper echelons of hostile takeover attempts in recent decades. In fairness, the $82.7 billion deal, or $72 billion equity valuation, from streaming giant Netflix is also pretty massive. That was the one WBD's board had agreed on, and it excluded certain pieces of the business.

David Ellison is officially the CEO of Paramount Skydance. After a successful Paramount merger, next on his wish list is Warner Bros. Discovery - and he's launched a hostile takeover bid in an effort to scoop it out from Netflix's hands. The 42-year-old founded Skydance back in 2006 with some help from his father Larry Ellison, the Oracle cofounder who's worth $277 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Paramount Global has sweetened its offer to acquire Warner by a bunch, offering an all-cash deal valued at $108 billion to take over the parent company of HBO, Warner Bros. Studios and CNN, among other notable properties. It would appear to significantly outstrip the deal worth $83 billion that Netflix and Warner announced just last Friday, although that agreement is solely for Warner's streaming service and studios.

Two of the most popular streaming services have agreed to combine, in a move that could change the streaming service landscape. Netflix said Friday it will acquire the studio and streaming business of Warner Bros. Discovery, the legacy Hollywood giant behind Harry Potter and Friends, for $72 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the next 12 to 18 months after Warner completes its previously-announced separation of its cable operations. Not included in the deal are networks like CNN and Discovery.

The entertainment conglomerate, formed three years ago when Warner Media spun off from AT&T and merged with Discovery, Inc., announced plans this past summer to split back into two separate companies. Its functional studio and streaming arm, the source of the publicly traded company's value as a security, would thus be unshackled from its network TV business, which still generates a ton of cash but is a declining in value (as evinced by WBD's $9 billion write-down of its TV properties).

Before Warner Bros. Discovery's Q3 earnings call even began on Thursday, the investor relations team made it clear that leadership did not want to talk about the company currently trying to sell parts of itself to potential bidders. Which wasn't exactly true. They didn't want to field specific questions, sure, but WBD's leadership kept talking about the hypothetical acquisition anyway.