December 22, 2025 — Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. Series A Common Stock (NASDAQ: WBD) traded higher Monday as the company’s takeover battle intensified, with Paramount Skydance revising its hostile bid and Netflix disclosing fresh financing arrangements tied to its agreed deal with Warner’s studio-and-streaming assets. [1]
WBD shares were recently around $28.70, after ranging between $27.78 and $29.31 in Monday’s session, as investors weighed the value of Paramount’s $30-per-share all-cash proposal against the certainty, structure, and regulatory path of the Netflix transaction. [2]
Why Warner Bros. Discovery stock is moving on Dec. 22, 2025
Two headline developments hit the market on Monday:
- Paramount Skydance amended its $30-per-share hostile offer for WBD by adding an irrevocable personal guarantee from Oracle founder Larry Ellison covering $40.4 billion of equity financing—an attempt to address the WBD board’s prior criticisms about funding certainty. [3]
- Netflix disclosed it has refinanced part of its $59 billion bridge loan (originally arranged to support its proposed acquisition of major WBD assets) and lined up new credit facilities—signaling it is moving to “lock down” funding for what would be one of the largest media deals in history. [4]
Together, those updates pushed WBD stock higher because the market is effectively pricing WBD as a deal-driven, headline-sensitive equity until there’s clarity on which bidder—if any—wins. [5]
Paramount’s revised bid: what changed (and what didn’t)
Paramount Skydance kept its headline price at $30 per share in cash for 100% of WBD, but it added new provisions aimed at reducing the “financing doubt” that has hung over the offer. [6]
Key changes announced Monday
According to Paramount’s release and Reuters reporting, the amended bid includes:
- Irrevocable personal guarantee: Larry Ellison personally guarantees $40.4B of the equity financing (and certain damages claims). [7]
- Trust protections: Ellison agreed not to revoke the Ellison family trust or transfer assets in ways that could endanger the transaction. [8]
- Bigger reverse termination fee: Paramount raised its regulatory reverse termination fee to $5.8B, matching the competing structure referenced in coverage of the Netflix deal. [9]
- Tender offer extension: Paramount extended its tender offer deadline to January 21, 2026. [10]
- Condition on Global Networks: Paramount says its offer is conditioned (among other things) on WBD continuing to own 100% of its Global Networks business. [11]
Paramount also disclosed that, as of December 19, 2025, only 397,252 WBD shares had been tendered into its offer—an early datapoint that suggests many shareholders may be waiting for further price improvements, clearer deal terms, or more confidence on regulatory timing. [12]
What did not change
Paramount did not raise the $30-per-share price on Monday. Reuters also reported that the bid “remains unchanged” in price even after the financing enhancements. [13]
Netflix’s financing move: a signal it’s serious about closing
On the other side of the bidding war, Netflix disclosed (via a regulatory filing covered by Reuters) that it refinanced part of a $59B bridge loan supporting its proposed acquisition of WBD’s film/TV studios and streaming assets. The package includes a $5B revolving credit facility and two $10B delayed-draw term loans, leaving roughly $34B of the bridge to be syndicated. [14]
Reuters notes the proceeds may cover the cash portion of the deal, fees and expenses, and potentially refinancing and general corporate purposes—typical for large M&A financing stacks where bridge commitments get replaced with longer-term debt. [15]
Just as importantly for WBD shareholders, Reuters reported that the Netflix deal is expected to close after WBD spins off its Global Networks unit in Q3 2026, consistent with the strategy of separating faster-growth studio/streaming assets from legacy linear networks. [16]
WBD’s board is still backing Netflix (and it laid out the math)
While Paramount is pressing its case directly to shareholders, WBD’s board has repeatedly emphasized that it views the Netflix combination as offering “superior, more certain value,” and it has urged shareholders not to tender into Paramount’s offer. [17]
In WBD’s December 17 shareholder communication (still central to how the market interprets board intent), the company described the Netflix package as:
- $23.25 in cash
- $4.50 in Netflix stock (subject to a collar range tied to Netflix’s stock price at closing)
- plus additional value tied to shares of the post-separation networks entity (“Discovery Global”) and any upside after that separation [18]
WBD also highlighted a major friction point if it were to walk away from Netflix: a $2.8B termination fee payable to Netflix, and other potential financing-related costs the company said could be triggered under certain scenarios. [19]
The “deal spread” explains why WBD isn’t already at $30
A simple way traders frame WBD right now is as a merger-arbitrage stock.
- Paramount’s offer: $30.00 (cash) [20]
- WBD’s trading price Monday: about $28.70
That’s a spread of roughly $1.30 per share (around 4–5%), which is the market’s way of pricing uncertainty—primarily:
- whether Paramount can actually win shareholder support without raising the price,
- whether WBD’s board will reconsider if the offer changes again, and
- whether regulators would impose conditions, delays, or blocks on either transaction. [21]
Analyst and market commentary on Dec. 22: what the Street is saying
Monday’s news cycle produced a mix of “deal mechanics” analysis and “who blinks first” speculation:
- Reuters quoted Seth Shafer, a principal analyst at S&P Global, expressing skepticism that the financing guarantee alone would change many shareholders’ minds if they were already leaning “no,” suggesting the revised bid may not be the decisive factor for fence-sitters. [22]
- Business Insider reported that Raymond James analysts still expected WBD to stick with Netflix’s bid, while also suggesting Paramount could ultimately go higher—potentially into the mid-$30s—if it decides it must raise price to win. [23]
- Investopedia emphasized the near-term trading reality: each incremental headline is moving WBD, Paramount Skydance, and Netflix shares as investors try to handicap which transaction survives and what the final terms look like. [24]
This is why WBD stock has been volatile: the equity is trading less on quarter-to-quarter fundamentals and more on probabilities, timelines, and legal/financing certainty.
A reminder of what WBD owns (and why bidders want it)
A Reuters factbox published Monday underscores why WBD is the center of such a high-stakes fight: it controls a deep catalog and globally recognized brands—particularly in film, premium TV, and franchises that are strategic “must-haves” for streaming scale. [25]
Among the business metrics highlighted in the Reuters snapshot:
- WBD’s total revenue for fiscal 2024 fell about 5% to $39.32B; studio revenue declined 5% to $11.61B. [26]
- The company’s direct-to-consumer segment (now named Streaming) includes HBO Max and discovery+ and reached 128M global subscribers, after adding 2.3M net subscribers in the third quarter. [27]
That combination—premium IP, a scaled streaming base, and cash-generating (but declining) linear networks—is exactly why this situation is complicated: each bidder’s structure implicitly places a different value on the legacy networks and on the standalone prospects of streaming.
Regulatory and political risk: the biggest “unknown” for WBD stock
Even if shareholders prefer one offer, Reuters and other coverage make the same point: regulatory scrutiny is unavoidable.
Reuters reported that both deals would face intense antitrust scrutiny in the U.S. and Europe, with lawmakers voicing concerns about consolidation in media and streaming. [28]
Paramount argues a combined Paramount–WBD would create a massive traditional-and-streaming content competitor; Reuters noted a Paramount-WBD combination could surpass Disney in scale in some measures, while a Netflix-WBD tie-up would further concentrate streaming power. [29]
For investors, this matters because regulatory outcomes can reshape:
- the closing timeline,
- the probability of a deal break, and
- the chance of structural remedies (asset divestitures, behavioral commitments, or other conditions) that change deal economics.
WBD stock forecasts and price targets: what to do with them right now
Traditional “12-month price target” frameworks are unusually messy in a takeover-driven tape, but they still provide useful context for what the market once expected in a standalone scenario.
As of Dec. 22, widely followed aggregators show a broad range:
- MarketBeat lists an average analyst price target around $23.22 (with wide dispersion). [30]
- Yahoo Finance shows a 1-year target estimate around $26.77. [31]
- A Nasdaq/Fintel-based update published Dec. 20 reported the average one-year price target revised to $27.78. [32]
The key takeaway for readers
With WBD trading around $28–$29 on deal headlines, the stock is already above or near many traditional targets—suggesting today’s price reflects M&A optionality more than “business as usual.” [33]
If a deal collapses or is delayed materially, investors could see the market re-anchor to fundamentals (and those older analyst targets). If a bidding war escalates, the stock could instead follow the “price discovery” of improved offers.
What WBD investors should watch next
Here are the near-term catalysts most likely to move Warner Bros. Discovery stock from here:
- January 21, 2026: Paramount’s extended tender offer expiration date. [34]
- Any further bid revisions: especially whether Paramount raises price above $30 or changes key conditions. [35]
- Financing milestones: Netflix’s ongoing syndication/replacement of bridge financing and any further disclosures. [36]
- WBD structural timeline: the planned Global Networks spinoff (targeted for Q3 2026), which is central to the Netflix transaction’s sequencing. [37]
- Regulatory signals: early agency commentary, formal second requests, or remedy discussions.
Bottom line
On December 22, 2025, Warner Bros. Discovery stock rose as the market absorbed a higher-certainty Paramount bid (via Larry Ellison’s personal guarantee) and a more fully financed Netflix path (via new credit facilities replacing part of a massive bridge loan). [38]
For now, WBD remains a deal tape: the stock is likely to trade on incremental news about price, conditions, shareholder support, and regulatory risk—more than on week-to-week streaming metrics—until the bidding war resolves.
References
1. www.nasdaq.com, 2. www.reuters.com, 3. www.reuters.com, 4. www.reuters.com, 5. www.reuters.com, 6. www.prnewswire.com, 7. www.prnewswire.com, 8. www.prnewswire.com, 9. www.prnewswire.com, 10. www.prnewswire.com, 11. www.prnewswire.com, 12. www.prnewswire.com, 13. www.reuters.com, 14. www.reuters.com, 15. www.reuters.com, 16. www.reuters.com, 17. ir.wbd.com, 18. ir.wbd.com, 19. ir.wbd.com, 20. www.prnewswire.com, 21. www.reuters.com, 22. www.reuters.com, 23. www.businessinsider.com, 24. www.investopedia.com, 25. www.investing.com, 26. www.investing.com, 27. www.investing.com, 28. www.reuters.com, 29. www.reuters.com, 30. www.marketbeat.com, 31. finance.yahoo.com, 32. www.nasdaq.com, 33. www.marketbeat.com, 34. www.prnewswire.com, 35. www.businessinsider.com, 36. www.reuters.com, 37. www.reuters.com, 38. www.prnewswire.com
