Paramount Skydance shares climbed 2.69% in premarket trading on January 9, 2026, after CEO David Ellison publicly reaffirmed the company’s all-cash offer of $30 per share to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. The premarket volume surged to over 5 million shares, well above the 30-day average of 2.1 million, as investors reacted to Ellison’s statement that the bid represents superior value compared with WBD’s existing streaming deal with Netflix.

Paramount argues that its proposal, which would include ownership of cable networks currently slated for a global spin-off, offers greater upside than Netflix’s narrowly focused agreement to purchase studio and streaming assets at $27.75 per share. Despite a unanimous board rejection by WBD, major institutional stakeholders remain split: a cluster of value-oriented funds is reportedly lobbying for Ellison’s higher-cash offer, while tech-focused investors favor the lower-risk Netflix arrangement tied to streaming growth projections.

Ellison’s team has highlighted the recent performance of Versant, Comcast’s newly spun-off cable assets, whose share value plunged roughly 25% to $33.80 within three trading sessions post-IPO. With Versant’s enterprise value now at $7.25 billion against 2026 EBITDA guidance of $1.85–$2.0 billion—implying a 3.8x EV/EBITDA multiple—Paramount contends WBD’s Global Networks could be worth as little as $1.20 per share, far below Netflix’s implied valuation hurdle. Internal PSKY analyses even peg those assets at $0.56 per share, bolstering Ellison’s case that cable operations may drag down overall deal returns.