A private equity firm owned by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushneris no longer supported by Paramount Hostile takeover attempt For Warner Bros. Discovery, the company confirmed on Tuesday.
Days after Netflix agreed to buy Warner in early December, Paramount launched a competing bid seeking to bypass Warner’s management and appeal directly to its shareholders for more money. Paramount is offering $30 per share for Warner stock versus $27.75 for Netflix.
Warner Bros., one of Hollywood’s “Big Five” studios, owns Warner Bros. Pictures, HBO, the DC Comics universe, and the Harry Potter franchise. Experts say that it could be acquired as well Shipping the winning company And reshaping the flow of wars, either by catapult Netflix Further advance over major competitors or by promoting a new strong player at Paramount.
Paramount, which is much smaller than Netflix, said its decision to circumvent senior Warner executives came after they “did not meaningfully engage” with several of the company’s previous offers.
Paramount announced details of its new offer and gave Warner shareholders the option to tender their shares—sell them outright at a specified price—to support its offer. The company is offering to buy the entire Warner portfolio, including cable networks like CNN that Netflix excluded from its bid.
In its appeal to shareholders, Paramount said its offer would be more likely to pass regulatory scrutiny from the Trump administration.
The president said the Warner and Netflix deal “could be problematic” given the size of their combined market share.
Kushner’s decision to withdraw financial support for his company removes Paramount’s potential advantage over Trump. The amount Kushner’s Affinity Partners contributed to the bid was not disclosed in Paramount’s most recent Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
“With two powerful competitors competing to secure the future of this unique American asset, Affinity has decided to no longer pursue this opportunity,” the company said in a statement. “The investment dynamics have changed significantly since we initially participated in October. We continue to believe there is a strong strategic case for Paramount’s bid.”
Paramount’s offer is still supported by wealth funds managed by three governments in the Persian Gulf: Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.
Paramount, which owns CBS, MTV and the streaming service Paramount+, is newly headed by David Ellison, the son of a major Trump donor. But Trump recently criticized the Ellison family for the way it was received on CBS News’ “60 Minutes.”
“If they are friends, I hate to see them as my enemies!” Trump said Tuesday on Truth Social.
Warner is reviewing Paramount’s offer and is expected to tell shareholders soon whether it is a better deal than selling to Netflix.