Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters has taken aim at Paramount’s hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), saying the financing plan “doesn’t pass the sniff test.”

The comments, made in an interview with the Financial Times (FT), are the latest in an escalating war of words as Paramount attempts to unseat Netflix’s definitive agreement to acquire WBD’s studio and streaming assets.

Peters’ comments echo those of the WBD board, which has previously said it sees red flags in Paramount’s proposed finance plan to acquire all of WBD for US$30 per share, the equivalent of US$108.4bn.

To address those concerns, Larry Ellison, who is one of the world’s richest people and father of Paramount’s chairman and CEO David Ellison, has agreed to backstop the deal. Paramount says its offer is superior – a claim WBD and Netflix have strenuously dismissed – and is also suing WBD’s board to force it to explain why it believes Netflix’s deal is better.

Paramount initially gave WBD shareholders a deadline of January 21 to tender their shares. However, WBD last week said only 7% of stockholders did so. In order to take control of WBD, at least 50% of shareholders would need to tender their shares. Paramount has responded by extending the deadline to February 20.

Paramount has so far declined to increase its offer, which would appear to be the only way to get back into contention. Peters argued that increasing the bid would mean Paramount’s debt ratio would be excessive, saying it’s “hard to imagine how that works out well.”

He added: “It doesn’t pass the sniff test in my mind, and that’s what the Warner Brothers board determined. I think that’s where the Warner shareholders are at too.”

Elsewhere, Peters pointed to the fact Paramount’s hostile bid relies heavily on funding from Ellison senior. “Without Larry Ellison independently financing this thing, there’s no chance in hell Paramount would ever be able to pull this off,” he said.

For its part, Netflix has agreed to buy WBD’s studio and streaming assets for US$82.7bn, or US$27.75 per share. Last week, the streamer officially updated its bid to all-cash, a move it says gives added certainty and accelerates the path to a WBD shareholder vote.

Paramount pushed back on Netflix’s assessment of its bid. In the same FT story, RedBird Capital founder Gerry Cardinale called Netflix’s bid “smoke and mirrors” because it relies on WBD shifting billions in debt to linear networks spin-off Discovery Global.

In a separate interview with tech and media publication Stratechery, Peters said the plan is to keep the HBO team in place once a deal is closed.

HBO remains one of the jewels in WBD’s crown, with the team led by Casey Bloys playing a significant part in the consistency and calibre of its output over the past 15 years.

Asked whether streamer HBO Max would be folded into Netflix, Peters said a decision had not yet been made and that the leadership had “more work” to do to figure out the best path forward.