The board of directors of Warner Bros. Discovery said Thursday that Paramount Skydance’s latest offer to acquire the company, including its cable networks, is “better” than its current deal with Netflix.
In a press release, Warner Bros. said it had warned Netflix of the decision and that the company would have four business days to respond with a counterclaim.
Paramount’s revised offer, released Tuesday, raised the purchase price to $31 a share from $30 — a deal that would cost Warner Bros. Discovery is about $77 billion. The proposal also included a deferred $7 billion severance fee if regulators block the deal, as well as reimbursement for potential costs to Warner Bros. Discovery to cancel its deal with Netflix.
Netflix and Warner Bros. had previously agreed to a $72 billion deal, in which Netflix would buy the Warner Bros. film studio. Discovery, along with HBO and the HBO Max streaming service. Warner Bros. has said it could terminate that deal if any revised offer from Netflix is deemed greater than Paramount’s offer.
“We are pleased that the WBD Board has unanimously confirmed the high value of our offer,” said Paramount CEO David Ellison. He said his deal would provide “certainty and speed to closing.”
Ellison was in Washington this week, attending President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address as a guest of Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., according to a photo posted on X.
Netflix did not immediately return a request for comment.
An announcement from Warner Bros. comes as Netflix and Paramount continue to lobby for their acquisition efforts. With Ellison in Washington, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos is reportedly set to meet with White House officials and the Justice Department’s antitrust division in Washington, DC Sarandos was seen arriving at the White House shortly before 4pm ET.
It wouldn’t be the Netflix executive’s first visit to the mansion. Late last year Sarandos visited Trump in the Oval Office.
“I met with Ted. I think he’s very good,” the president told reporters on December 7. But after a while, Trump said that the combination of Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery “could be a problem” because of the market value the company would have.
Sarandos also recently testified at a Senate hearing earlier this month, saying the giant’s proposed deal with Warner Bros. “will create more economic growth.”
“This is not a typical media conglomerate where you end up with the so-called Noah’s Ark problem — two of everything,” Sarandos said at the time. “We are buying a company that has assets that we don’t own, and we will continue to invest that money.”
Earlier on Thursday, that Senate committee requested another hearing, titled “Second Act: Competition and Monopsony Concerns in the Proposed Netflix-Warner Brothers Transaction” to be held on March 4. It is unclear whether Paramount will face similar requests.
To note, David Ellison is the son of Larry Ellison, the billionaire founder of Oracle. The Ellisons are the controlling shareholders of Paramount, and Larry Ellison has close ties to President Donald Trump.
Trump has also given mixed signals about how he feels about the Ellisons and Paramount. After the Trump admin. approved the Ellisons’ takeover of Paramount, Trump later said “60 Minutes has treated me worse since the so-called ‘takeover,’ than they’ve ever treated me before. If they’re friends, I’d hate to see my enemies!”
Trump recently told NBC News that he would withdraw from the antitrust program, but previously indicated several times that he would be personally involved.
Warner Bros. rejected several offers before Thursday’s announcement, prompting Ellison’s subsidiary to step up its takeover bid. This prompted Netflix to amend its offer for an all-cash offer that is widely seen as a move to fend off rival interest.
Before Thursday, Warner Bros. had been consistently classifying the Netflix proposal as the highest bid for shareholders.
The shareholders of Warner Bros. they will vote on the pending transaction on March 20. However, regardless of what Warner Bros. decides, the deal must be approved by state regulators.
