Commentary: Paramount-Warner fight shows the hostile takeover is back. So are the egos of the combatants

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If there were any doubts that hostile corporate takeovers, which went into a decline after their heyday in the 1980s, are back, the $78-billion hostile bid by Paramount for Warner Bros.Discovery should put them to rest.

The bid by Paramount, which is controlled by the family of billionaire Larry Ellison, has many of the features of hostile corporate bids of the past.What the pursuers typically bring to the table are boatloads of money, typically well into the billions, and ego.

It’s the second factor that often keeps takeover bids alive long after the proposed deals lose their economic rationality.Once the bidders state their intentions publicly, they become increasingly reluctant to be seen as losers.

Indeed, the drama of the dealmaking often exceeds its dollars-and-cents logic.The hostile takeover became the defining symbol of U.S.style capitalism.— Harvard Forum on Corporate Governance, looking back at the 1980sThe drama is at least part of what has captivated the business and entertainment worlds about the battle for Warner.

Paramount’s hostile bid, which was formally announced Monday, has thrown a monkey wrench into a deal for much of Warner Bros.Discovery submitted by Netflix — which received the blessing of the Warner board only four days earlier.

The board says it has the Paramount bid under consideration.Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison’s comments about the bidding for Warner exudes personal pique over the target’s failure even to respond to his last bid for the company.The board is tasked with weighing the comparable values of the two offers for shareholders.The Netflix bid is for only part of the company — Netflix had offered $72 billion — or $27.75 a share — for a big chunk of the company: the Warner Bros.

film and television studios, which hold the rights to Batman and Harry Potter, among the company’s iconic assets; its Burbank lot; ...