{"id":5934,"date":"2026-02-26T23:32:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T23:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=5934"},"modified":"2026-02-26T23:32:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T23:32:03","slug":"netflix-declines-to-match-paramount-offer-for-warner-bros-discovery-netflix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=5934","title":{"rendered":"Netflix declines to match Paramount offer for Warner Bros Discovery | Netflix"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Netflix has walked away from its planned takeover of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/film\/warner-bros\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Warner Bros<\/a> Discovery, declining to raise its offer for the media conglomerate\u2019s storied Hollywood studios and streaming business after it determined a sweetened rival offer from Paramount Skydance to be \u201csuperior\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In a statement on Thursday evening, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/media\/netflix\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Netflix<\/a> co-chief executives Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said that \u201cat the price required to match Paramount Skydance\u2019s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In its revised offer, Paramount offered $31 per share for the company, up from $30, a $7bn regulatory termination fee if the merger is not improved, and a \u201cticking fee\u201d amounting to about $650m in cash each quarter beginning after September.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Netflix was given four business days to beat Paramount\u2019s revised offer \u2013 but quickly decided against doing so.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWe believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros\u2019 iconic brands, and that our deal would have strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the US,\u201d Sarandos and Peters said in their statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cBut this transaction was always a \u2018nice to have\u2019 at the right price, not a \u2018must have\u2019 at any price.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Netflix\u2019s unwillingness to revise its offer $82.7bn offer for the studio and streaming assets of WBD means that the Ellison family are now expected to acquire the entirety of the company, including the cable news network CNN.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">David Ellison, the chief executive of Paramount, had released a statement earlier on Thursday saying the company was \u201cpleased WBD\u2019s board has unanimously affirmed the superior value of our offer, which delivers to WBD shareholders superior value, certainty and speed to closing\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">WBD had announced a 20 March special meeting for shareholders to vote on the Netflix merger.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Netflix\u2019s announcement that it is backing away from the deal comes after Sarandos <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/25\/media\/netflixs-ted-sarandos-heads-to-dc-to-save-warner-bros-deal-as-antitrust-concerns-intensify\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">held meetings in Washington <\/a>with Trump administration officials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Netflix\u2019s merger with WBD was expected to receive close regulatory scrutiny, including a thorough review by the Department of Justice to determine if it poses a threat to competition in the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In their statement, Sarandos and Peters thanked WBD \u201cfor running a fair and rigorous process\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThe transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval,\u201d the executives said. \u201cHowever, we\u2019ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance\u2019s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Sarandos and Peters said: \u201cWe will continue to do what we\u2019ve done for more than 20 years as a public company: delight our members, profitably grow our business, and drive long-term shareholder value.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Officials in the White House have long preferred the bid from Paramount, considering that the Ellison family has a friendly relationship with the president.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/media\/2026\/feb\/26\/netflix-paramount-warner-bros\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Netflix has walked away from its planned takeover of Warner Bros Discovery, declining to raise its offer for the media conglomerate\u2019s storied Hollywood studios and streaming&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}