Catenaa, Tuesday, February 10, 2026- Paramount sweetens the Warner Bros takeover bid with a ticking fee of 25 cents per share, amounting to $650 million for every quarter if it fails to make a deal by year’s end.
On Tuesday, the Skydance-owned company said it would pay Warner shareholders an added “ticking fee” if its deal doesn’t go through by the end of the year, amounting to 25 cents per share, or a total of $650 million, for every quarter after December 31.
Paramount also pledged to fund Warner’s proposed $2.8 billion breakup payout to Netflix under its studio and streaming merger agreement.
The value of Paramount’s offer otherwise remains unchanged. The company is offering to pay $30 per share in cash to Warner’s stakeholders, who now have until March 2 to tender their shares.
In a statement, Paramount CEO David Ellison said that the “additional benefits” announced Tuesday “clearly underscore our strong and unwavering commitment to delivering the full value WBD shareholders deserve for their investment.”
Paramount wants to buy Warner’s entire company for $77.9 billion, with a total enterprise value of $108 billion including debt. Beyond studio and streaming operations, that includes Warner’s networks like CNN and Discovery.
But it has a long way to go in terms of getting shareholder support, which, according to recent company disclosures, has appeared to decline over the last month.
As of Monday, Paramount said that more than 42.3 million Warner shares had been “validly tendered and not withdrawn” from its bid, down from over 168.5 million Warner shares on January 21.
Warner has about 2.48 billion shares of series A common stock outstanding today. Paramount would need more than 50% to gain control of the company effectively.
Warner Bros. and Netflix stocks were up by over 2% on Tuesday, and Paramount stock was up by over 1.5%.
