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The Ellisons at the Gates

Paramount has raised the stakes in its hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, and may yet go higher. Now Netflix must decide how much it wants to venture into junk credit-rating territory, or play games with its stock, to secure the prize.

larry ellison david ellison
Between September and early December, the Ellisons made an astounding six bids for WBD, finally sweetening their offer last week to $30 a share, all cash—a 58 percent increase from their first offer. Photo: MediaNews Group/Bay Area News/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
December 10, 2025

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As could easily be surmised from the tea leaves last weekend, there was no way that Paramount was going to go gently into that good night and allow Netflix to walk away with Warner Bros. Discovery for $27.75 a share in cash and stock, plus the value of the Discovery Global stub equity. After all, the Ellisons essentially launched the battle for WBD on September 11, with the leak to The Wall Street Journal that they wanted to own the whole company and would be bidding for it, though WBD had not officially put itself up for sale. The ink had been dry barely a month on the Ellisons’ acquisition of Paramount before they were thinking about what to buy next.