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It's really looking like a one-sided affair. 

Warner Bros. Discovery rejected Paramount's amended offer — marking the eighth such refusal over the last several months. WBD said the offer, which was adjusted to include an “irrevocable personal guarantee” by billionaire Larry Ellison, offered "insufficient value" and expressed concern over the costs and risk, pointing to the company's weak financial position. 

It's clear the only way for Paramount to get Warner Bros. Discovery interested is with a higher offer — but there's been no indication CEO David Ellison is willing to budge on his offer of $30-a-share. The other option, as the New York Post's Charles Gasparino reported, was considering legal action to stop the Netflix deal. 

Neither Paramount and Ellison have offered comment, a contrast to their prior public responsiveness. But this rejection shouldn't come as a shock to them, as the offer wasn't materially different and reports last week indicated Warner Bros. Discovery wasn't budging on its deal with Netflix. 

Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform and Antitrust held a hearing to review the Warner Bros.-Netflix deal, and as you can imagine, the Democrats on the committee were skeptical this would be good for Americans. 

Beyond the hearing, here's what else was going on:

• WBD Chairman Samuel A. DiPiazza Jr. said the company was "very open" to a deal with Paramount, but skeptical about whether the media rival would walk away from a transaction if market conditions changed in the next 18 months.
• Pentwater Capital Management, the seventh-largest shareholders in WBD, said the final Paramount offer was "economically superior" to the Netflix bid.
• Cinema United sent a statement to the House subcommittee warning the sale would have an "irreversible negative impact" on movie theaters.
• The hearing didn't include any of the principal companies, with antitrust experts taking up most of the testimony. 
• A lot of attention has been on shares of Comcast spinoff Versant, which some see as a proxy how Discovery Global may fare when it spins off. Versant shares have been on the decline since going public on Monday, but Comcast co-CEO Mike Cavanagh remains "optimistic."

As always, we'll keep an ear to the ground for the next development in this ongoing saga. 

Roger Cheng
Managing Editor of Business and PRO
roger.cheng@thewrap.com

ANOTHER REJECTION

Warner Bros. Discovery said that Paramount was "well aware of the reasons behind the board's determination that the Netflix merger agreement is superior to its offer," yet has not done anything to address its concerns (translation: Put up more money)...

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