Warner Bros. Is Testing Larry Ellison's Pain Barrier
Best and final offer?
Photographer: Caroline Brehman/BloombergA tweak here, a twiddle there, and now possibly a 3% sweetener on the price. It’s all progress. But the billionaire Ellison family has yet to make an offer for Warner Bros Discovery Inc. that clearly beats the studio’s December deal with Netflix Inc. Now it’s time to see what tech luminary Larry and film producer son David can really deliver.
On Tuesday Warner boss David Zaslav finally agreed to takeover talks with Ellison-backed Paramount Skydance Corp. — if only for a week. Netflix has consented. Despite persistent gaps in the rival suitor’s pitch, this was the right step by Warner. Paramount last week delivered high-level answers to objections to its then $30-a-share proposal, which valued the Hollywood firm at $108 billion including debt. Now the Ellisons are dangling $31 per share, taking it to about $111 billion.