Variety took the liberty of combing through the lengthy filing, which states that David Ellison first visited Zaslav at his Beverly Hills home on September 14 with an offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery at $19 per share. Later, Ellison offered Zaslav the role of “co-CEO and co-Chairman of the board of directors of the combined company” and, on November 24, shared a meal with him and his father, Larry, where they further detailed what that role entailed. There were various revisions to the offer until Paramount arrived at its $30 per share figure. On December 4—the day the sale to Netflix was announced—Ellison sent Zaslav the following texts to no response:
“Just tried calling you about new bid we have submitted. I heard you on all your concerns and believe we have addressed them in our new proposal. Please give me a call back when you can to discuss in detail.”
“David, I appreciate you’re underwater today so I wanted to send you a quick text. Please note when you next meet as a board we wanted to offer you a package that addressed all of the issues you discussed we [sic] me. Those were 1 we wanted to offer complete certainty 2 strong cash value 3 speed to close. Please note importantly we did not include “best and final” in our bid. Also please know despite the noise of the last 24 hours I have nothing but respect and admiration for you and the company. It would be the honor of a lifetime to be your partner and to be the owner of these iconic assets. If we have the privilege to work together you will see that my father and I are the people you had dinner with. We are always loyal and honorable to our partners and hope we have the opportunity to prove that to you. Best, David”.
About seven hours after the second text, news broke that Netflix had placed the winning bid for WB, which was obviously upsetting for the Ellisons. “The final proposal stated Paramount was ready to immediately sign the transaction, accompanied by fully executable agreements with fully committed debt financing and fully committed equity financing from the Ellison family,” part of the filing reads. “Despite these facts, the Warner Bros. Board and its advisors chose on that pivotal December 4th to make no effort to even speak with Paramount or its representatives about anything.” Paramount is certainly making itself pretty hard to ignore now.
