10:48 AM EST, 12/17/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Warner Bros. Discovery ( WBD ) urged its shareholders to reject Paramount Skydance's ( PSKY ) acquisition proposal, describing the offer as "inferior" to the merger deal with Netflix ( NFLX ) .

The recommendation comes more than a week after Paramount made its hostile bid public, offering Warner's shareholders $30 a share in cash. Paramount pitched its offer as a "superior" and more certain alternative to Netflix's ( NFLX ) proposed cash-and-stock mix worth $27.75 per share.

"Following a careful evaluation of Paramount's recently launched tender offer, the board concluded that the offer's value is inadequate, with significant risks and costs imposed on our shareholders," Warner Chairman Samuel Di Piazza Jr. said in a news release.

The Warner board said in a letter to shareholders that Paramount's proposal isn't backstopped by the Ellison family.

"Despite having been told repeatedly by (Warner) how important a full and unconditional financing commitment from the Ellison family was -- and despite their own ample resources, as well as multiple assurances by (Paramount) during our strategic review process that such a commitment was forthcoming -- the Ellison family has chosen not to backstop the (Paramount) offer," the letter said.

Shares of Paramount were down 4.2% in Wednesday trade. Netflix's ( NFLX ) shares rose 2.2%, while Warner, which operates the HBO Max streaming service, dipped 0.5%.

Paramount said Wednesday it remains committed to acquiring Warner Bros. for $30 per share.

"Paramount's offer will be financed by $41 billion of new equity backstopped by the Ellison family and RedBird Capital and $54 billion of debt commitments from Bank of America, Citi and Apollo," Paramount said in a statement.

Netflix ( NFLX ) separately welcomed the Warner board's recommendation to approve the deal with the streaming giant.

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