Paramount extends deadline on hostile Warner Bros bid to February 20

By Harshita Mary Varghese and Aditya Soni Jan 22 (Reuters) – Paramount Skydance on Thursday extended the deadline on its hostile tender offer for Warner Bros Discovery by about a month to February 20, buying more time to persuade investors that its bid for the Hollywood studio trumps a rival deal with Netflix. The company did not raise its bid on Thursday. Only about 168.5 million Warner Bros shares, representing 6.8% of the company's outstanding stock, had been tendered by the offer's original January 21 deadline. A successful deal will change the landscape of Hollywood by giving the suitor ownership of iconic franchises from "Friends" to "Batman" as well as the HBO Max streaming service. Netflix on Tuesday revised its $82.7 billion offer to go all-cash in hopes of expediting the deal closure and providing greater financial certainty to investors worried about its previous stock-and-cash deal. It is now willing to pay $27.75 per share in cash for the streaming and studio assets of the David Zaslav-led company, an offer that was unanimously approved by the Warner Bros board. Paramount has launched a charm offensive and sued Warner Bros to bring the HBO owner to the negotiating table. But Warner Bros and analysts have suggested that Paramount needs to raise its offer of $108.4 billion, or $30 per share, for the whole company to restart deal talks. BIDDING WAR LIKELY TO COME DOWN TO SHAREHOLDER VOTE Shares of Paramount rose 0.5% in premarket trading, while Netflix ticked up 0.2% and Warner Bros fell 0.3%. Netflix and Warner Bros did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Warner Bros' board earlier this month rejected an amended Paramount bid that included a $40 billion in equity personally guaranteed by Oracle's co-founder and Paramount CEO David Ellison's father, Larry Ellison. The race is expected to come to a head at a shareholder vote that is likely to be held by April as Warner investors weigh the value of cable assets that Paramount argues are worthless. Paramount said it would ask Warner Bros investors to vote against the Netflix deal, arguing the bid is valued incorrectly. It said that the offer relied on offloading $17 billion in debt to the Discovery Global spinoff that would house Warner Bros' cable assets and was essential to the Netflix deal. If Warner Bros cannot move all of the debt as planned, it would substantially reduce what shareholders stand to make on a sale to Netflix, Paramount said. Warner Bros has said that its advisers used three separate approaches for valuing Discovery Global. The lowest share price they arrived at was $1.33 per share, by applying a single value across the whole company. The high end of the range was a price of $6.86 a share, if the spinoff became involved in a future deal. Paramount has repeatedly said that its offer is superior to Netflix's deal and has a clearer path towards regulatory approval. The Ellisons have argued their relationship with President Donald Trump gives them an easier regulatory path to approval. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said on a post-earnings call on Tuesday that the company has made progress towards securing the necessary regulatory approvals.  Netflix expects the addition of HBO Max will allow it to offer more personalized and flexible subscription options to better meet the needs of its diverse global audience. It also sees the theatrical business as a new revenue stream. But some analysts argue the deal would create near-term uncertainty around integration costs, content spending and the large debt load of the combined company. (Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona and Anil D'Silva)

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