NEW YORK — Paramount on Monday launched a hostile takeover offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, initiating a potentially bruising battle with rival bidder Netflix to buy the company behind HBO, CNN and a famed movie studio along with the power to reshape much of the nation's entertainment landscape.

Emerging just days after top Warner managers agreed to Netflix's $72 billion purchase, the Paramount bid seeks to go over the heads of those leaders by appealing directly to Warner shareholders with more money — $74.4 billion — and a plan to buy all of Warner's business, including the cable business that Netflix does not want.

Paramount said its decision to go hostile came after it made several earlier offers that Warner management “never engaged meaningfully” with following the company's Octobe

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