Paramount sues after Warner Bros. Discovery rejects its latest deal

[Karlston]

David Ellison wants Warner Bros. Discovery to share more details about its Netflix deal with shareholders.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

 

Paramount is turning up the pressure on Warner Bros. Discovery in the wake of its merger with Netflix, as it’s now suing the David Zaslav-helmed company in an attempt to get more details surrounding the agreement. In addition to the lawsuit, Paramount CEO David Ellison revealed that the company plans to nominate directors to WBD’s board to vote against its deal with Netflix.

 

After fielding offers from a range of companies, including Paramount, WBD settled on a deal with Netflix, which will acquire the company’s studio, HBO, and HBO Max for $82.7 billion. But Paramount isn’t taking no for an answer; the company launched a $108.4 billion hostile takeover bid to purchase all of WBD in December. WBD later rejected this deal, along with Paramount’s amended offer.

 

Paramount has now filed a lawsuit against WBD to ask the court to force the company to disclose more details about its Netflix agreement with WBD shareholders, such as how it valued the transaction. “WBD has provided increasingly novel reasons for avoiding a transaction with Paramount, but what it has never said, because it cannot, is that the Netflix transaction is financially superior to our actual offer,” Ellison writes.

 

Ellison adds that Paramount plans to appoint a slate of directors ahead of WBD’s next shareholder meeting, who “will exercise WBD’s right under the Netflix Agreement to engage on Paramount’s offer and enter into a transaction with Paramount.”

 

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Posted Tuesday 13 January 2026 at 3:47 am AEST (my time).

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