(CNN) — Paramount has gone straight to Warner Bros. Discovery’s shareholders with an all-cash offer for the company that it says is more valuable than Netflix’s deal announced Friday.

Paramount was widely expected to be the frontrunner for Warner Bros. But WBD opted for Netflix, which it said offered a more lucrative deal. The proposed marriage with Netflix caught Hollywood insiders by surprise — including Paramount CEO David Ellison, who still contends that his deal was the better offer.

“We’re sitting on Wall Street, where cash is still king,” Ellison told CNBC in an interview Monday. “We are offering shareholders $17.6 billion more cash than the deal they currently have signed up with Netflix. And we believe when they see what it currently in our offer, then that’s what they’ll vot

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