After Paramount accused Warner Bros. of treating it unfairly during the deal talks, Warner Bros. has now gone on the offensive, telling shareholders that the Ellisons, the family that controls Paramount, "consistently misled" them about guarantees of the deal's funding, according to a new filing.

Affinity Partners had planned to back a bid by Paramount Skydance to acquire all the assets of media giant Warner Bros. Discovery.

Paramount’s announcement, taking its bid directly to WBD shareholders, comes after Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery revealed their binding agreement Friday under which Netflix would buy Warner Bros.’s studio operations, HBO and HBO Max for $72 billion (with an enterprise value of $82.7 billion).

The media company formally rejected a hostile takeover bid by Paramount and questioned the purported political advantages held by its unwanted suitor.