The bidding war for Warner Bros Discovery has escalated after Paramount Skydance dangled a hostile takeover bid worth $108.7 billion in a last-ditch effort to steal the media giant away from Netflix.
Netflix initially won the battle with an already blockbuster $82.7 billion deal last Friday – until Paramount on Monday unleashed a $30-per-share cash offer.
The Netflix ownership would have seen Warner Bros Discovery's global networks unit spun off into a new standalone company called Discovery Global, which would be completed by the third quarter of 2026, according to an internal memo from Warner Bros Discovery chief executive David Zaslav viewed by The National.
Paramount Skydance’s latest takeover bid for Warner Bros Discovery is reportedly backed by Gulf funds, including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Abu Dhabi’s L’imad Holding, and the Qatar Investment Authority, and highlights the growing appetite among Arab investors to take significant stakes in global media assets.
Some US legislators have expressed fears that Middle East money might influence media content and invite security scrutiny for the bid approval, Warner Bros Discovery told Paramount, according to the Financial Times.
However, analysts dismiss that notion and said that money from the Arab world is just like any
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