Warner Bros Discovery restarts deal talks with Paramount

Warner Bros Discovery said on Tuesday that it would restart the deal talks with Paramount Skydance that it ended in December, giving the company another chance at besting Netflix for a deal.

- LAUREN HIRSCH

Paramount Pictures in Hollywood. Paramount has not publicly raised its offer from $30 a share.

(NYT)

Paramount will have until Feb 23 to negotiate its best and final offer.Warner Bros Discovery last year rejected Paramount's offer to buy the entire company for $108 billion in favour of a deal to sell only its streaming and studios business to Netflix for $83 billion. Discovery said at the time that Netflix offered the better deal for shareholders. Paramount disagreed and quickly made its case to shareholders through a hostile bid.

In the roughly two months since then, Paramount has amended its offer twice, each time addressing some of the concerns that Discovery's board had raised. Paramount's CEO, David Ellison, has also raised questions about the Netflix bid, including whether its deal can pass regulatory scrutiny.

Some Discovery investors, including Pentwater Capital Management, have also raised concerns, encouraging the company to restart talks with Paramount. Shares of Discovery (WBD) and Paramount Skydance (PSKY) were both up about 3% in premarket trading.