Paramount has gone hostile in its bid for Warner Bros Discovery, challenging Netflix, which reached a $72bn takeover deal with the company just days ago.

Paramount said on Monday that it is going straight to Warner Bros shareholders with a bid worth about $74.4bn, or $30 per share in cash. Unlike Netflix, it is also offering to buy the cable assets of Warner Bros, and asking shareholders of the company to reject the Netflix bid.

It said its offer is worth about $18bn more than the competing bid from Netflix, which it says is based on an “illusory prospective valuation” of those cable assets.

It is the same bid that Warner Bros rejected in favour of the offer from Netflix in a merger that would alter the United States entertainment landscape.

Paramount criticised the Netflix offer, s

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