David Ellison must be breakdancing with joy this morning. I mean, why wouldn’t he? This is the best news he’s gotten in months.
Activist investor and Warner Bros. Discovery shareholder Ancora Alternatives LLC has warned it will vote against the company’s Netflix deal and launch a proxy fight unless the WBD board engages with Paramount.
Ancora has $11 billion in assets under management, and a $200M stake in WBD. They are now complaining that Warner Bros has not treated Paramount, nor its superior offer, legitimately.
"The currently proposed Netflix-WBD deal asks shareholders to accept inferior value, gamble on an uncertain spinoff and shoulder significant regulatory risk — despite the availability of a higher value and more certain $30 per share offer from Paramount," Ancora said on its website.
Yesterday, Paramount sweetened its hostile takeover bid for Warner, positioning it as a superior alternative to the Netflix agreement. Ancora is arguing that the WBD board has duty to consider Paramount’s revised offer, which addresses regulatory concerns and could maximize shareholder value. Ancora said if the board once again ignores Paramount, it will vote “no” on the Netflix deal and hold the board accountable at the 2026 shareholder meeting.
WBD has said it is reviewing Paramount’s updated proposal, which now seems to tackle most of the board’s previous concerns and has intensified pressure on Warner’s leadership. Analysts, including Seaport Research’s David Joyce, noted that the revised bid could offer WBD a path to a higher-value deal than Netflix.
Meanwhile, The Wrap is reporting about the “increased resistance” taking root against the Netflix-WB merger. Writers Guild of America West President Michele Mulroney notes that smaller nonprofits and established unions are now banding together to derail the deal.
At a post-trailer Q&A for “Werwulf,” which opens Christmas Day, Eggers explained why his next movie is Shakespeare’s teen tragedy rather than another gloomy medieval tale.