(This whole post is taken from Reuters)
The fifth-largest stakeholder in Warner Bros. declared that it will demand more from Paramount, which is owned by the Ellison family.
Harris Oakmark, a well-known stakeholder, told Reuters on Friday that ParamountSkydance’s most recent offer to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery is still insufficient.
With 96 million shares, or around 4% of the total, as of the end of September, Warner Bros.‘ fifth-largest shareholder declared that it would wait for more from Paramount, which is owned by the Ellison family.
In an email to Reuters, Alex Fitch, Director of US Research and portfolio manager at Harris Oakmark, stated, “The changes in Paramount’s new offer were necessary, but not sufficient.” “We consider the two transactions to be equal, and altering course comes at a cost. Paramount will need to provide a bigger reward if they are serious about winning.
In order to strengthen its funding, Paramount modified its $108.4 billion hostile bid for the legendary Hollywood studio on Monday. The offer to acquire Warner Bros., which owns HBO Max and is in charge of the Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Superman properties, is now being personally guaranteed $40.4 billion by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, whose son David owns Paramount.
Some Warner Bros. investors were hesitant to accept the offer due to concerns about the finance, which was mostly held in a revocable trust. In order to match a rival offer from Netflix, Paramount also raised the fee it will pay to $5.8 billion from $5 billion if regulators reject the transaction. However, it did not boost its $30-per-share proposal.
Investors in “Top Shelf Media Assets” Warner Bros. now have an extension from January 8 to January 21 to accept or reject the tender offer.
On Wednesday, the Warner Bros. board unanimously suggested that shareholders reject Paramount’s previous offer in favor of Netflix’s, citing the financing’s lack of a “full backstop.” The board said that Netflix’s proposal was better even if its cash offer of $23.25 per share is lower since the financing was more secure and it included $4.50 in shares of Netflix common stock in addition to whatever Warner Bros. may obtain when it spins out Discovery Global as part of the deal.
According to Yussef Gheriani, chief investment officer of Chicago investment company IHT Wealth Management, which has 16,000 Warner Bros. shares, 6,500 Netflix shares, and 60,000 Paramount shares, the bidding battle is a testament to the caliber of Warner Bros. assets.
He stated, “It’s really rare to get an opportunity to add top shelf media assets to your portfolio,” and that he would probably heed the board’s recommendation about the sale. “They know the business inside out and have a better grasp of the nuances associated with the deal than we do.”
Investor Thomas Poehling, who owns 639,000 shares of Paramountand 484,000 shares of Warner Bros., stated that if Netflix doesn’t object, he will probably accept the updated offer because Paramount is more likely to receive regulatory clearance.
According to Ellison, the guarantee “adds a lot of stability to that offer and that removes a lot of the financing uncertainty.”
There are other investors that own stock in the competing film companies besides Gheriani and Poehling. The three biggest investors in Warner Bros. are Vanguard, State Street, and BlackRock, who together own at least 22% of the business.
Additionally, all three are in the top 10 investors in Netflix and Paramount. This article received no comments.
© Thomson Reuters, 2025
𝑭𝒐𝒓 𝑹𝒆𝒈𝒖𝒍𝒂𝒓 & 𝑭𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑻𝒆𝒄𝒉 𝑵𝒆𝒘𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒔&𝑶𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒔, 𝑭𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝑻𝑬𝑪𝑯𝑵𝑶𝑿𝑴𝑨𝑹𝑻 𝒐𝒏 𝑻𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓, 𝑭𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌, 𝑰𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒎, 𝑮𝒐𝒐𝒈𝒍𝒆 𝑵𝒆𝒘𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒖𝒃𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒃𝒆 𝑯𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝑵𝒐𝒘. 𝑩𝒚 𝑺𝒖𝒃𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒃𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝑮𝒆𝒕 𝑶𝒖𝒓 𝑫𝒂𝒊𝒍𝒚 𝑫𝒊𝒈𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑫𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝑰𝒏 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑬𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒍 𝑰𝒏𝒃𝒐𝒙. 𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁𝘀𝗔𝗽𝗽 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 & 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘁𝘀.