Paramount has revised its offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, with Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison providing a personal guarantee of $40.4 billion for the equity financing portion of the bid. This move is intended to counter concerns from Warner Bros.' board about the financial stability of Paramount's previous offers.
The guarantee strengthens Paramount's hostile takeover attempt, which is competing with an existing $82.7 billion deal for Warner's studio and streaming assets from Netflix. Paramount's all-cash offer is for the entire Warner Bros. Discovery company and is valued at $30 per share. In addition to the financial backing, Paramount has increased its reverse termination fee to $5.8 billion to match Netflix's terms.