Overview
- Matthew Halbower, founder of Pentwater Capital, confirmed discussions to be a potential Warner Bros. Discovery director candidate if Paramount pursues a board contest.
- Pentwater, reported as WBD’s seventh‑largest shareholder with about 50 million shares, has voiced support for Paramount’s bid, and Halbower previously warned the board over rejecting it.
- Paramount is preparing to nominate enough directors to overturn a majority of WBD’s 14‑member board, according to the Financial Times report cited by Reuters.
- Activist outreach is intensifying as Ancora Holdings disclosed a small stake and said it would vote against the Netflix deal, while bankers for Paramount have been contacting other activists, the New York Post reported.
- Paramount has sweetened its $30‑per‑share all‑cash offer by adding roughly $650 million per quarter in extra cash if closing slips beyond this year and by agreeing to cover WBD’s $2.8 billion breakup fee, while Netflix has a $27.75‑per‑share cash offer for the studios and streaming assets; separately, Sachem Head more than doubled its WBD stake to nearly 8 million shares in Q4, an SEC filing showed.