Warner Bros. Discovery’s board of directors said Thursday that Paramount Skydance’s latest offer to acquire the company, including its cable networks, is “superior” to its current deal with Netflix.
In a news release, Warner Bros. said it has alerted Netflix about the decision and that the company will have four business days to respond with a counter.
Paramount’s updated offer, released Tuesday, raised the purchase price to $31 a share from $30 — a deal that would value Warner Bros. Discovery at roughly $77 billion. The proposal also included a $7 billion reverse termination fee if regulators block the deal, along with reimbursement for Warner Bros. Discovery’s potential cost to cancel its deal with Netflix.
Netflix and Warner Bros. had previously agreed to a $72 billion deal, in which Netflix would acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s film studio, along with HBO and the HBO Max streaming service. Warner Bros. said it could terminate that deal if any revised proposal from Netflix is not deemed superior to Paramount’s offer.
“We are pleased WBD’s Board has unanimously affirmed the superior value of our offer,” Paramount CEO David Ellison said. He said that his deal would offer “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, R-S.C., according to a photo posted on X.
Netflix did not immediately return a request for comment.
The announcement from Warner Bros. comes as Netflix and Paramount continue to lobby on behalf of their respective acqusition efforts. With Ellison in Washington, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos was reportedly set to meet with White House officials and the Justice Department’s antitrust division in Washington, D.C. Sarandos was seen arriving at the White House just before 4 p.m. ET.
It would not be the Netflix executive’s first visit to the executive mansion. Late last year Sarandos visited Trump in the Oval Office.
“I met with Ted. I think he’s fantastic,” the president told reporters on Dec. 7. But moments later, Trump said a Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery combination “could be a problem” because of the amount of market share the resulting company would have.
Sarandos also recently testified at a Senate hearing earlier this month, arguing that the streaming giant’s proposed deal with Warner Bros. would “create more economic growth.”
“This is not a typical media merger where you end up with what’s called the Noah’s Ark problem — two of everything,” Sarandos said at the time. “We are buying a company that has assets that we do not, and we will keep investing in those.”
Earlier on Thursday, that same Senate committee requested another hearing, titled “The Second Act: Competition and Monopsony Concerns in the Proposed Netflix-Warner Brothers Transaction” to be held on March 4. It’s unclear if Paramount will face the same requests.
To note, David Ellison is the son of Larry Ellison, the billionaire co-founder of Oracle. The Ellisons are the controlling shareholders of Paramount, and Larry Ellison has a close relationship with President Donald Trump.
Trump has also given conflicting 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 far worse since the so-called ‘takeover,’ than they have ever treated me before. If they are friends, I’d hate to see my enemies!”
Trump recently told NBC News that he would stay out of the antitrust process, but previously indicated on multiple occasions that he would be personally involved.
Warner Bros. had rejected multiple Paramount offers in the lead-up to Thursday’s announcement, prompting the Ellison-run company to escalate its effort into a hostile takeover attempt. This prompted Netflix to amend its bid to an all-cash offer widely seen as a move to fend off rival interest.
Prior to Thursday, Warner Bros. had consistently categorized the Netflix proposal as the superior bid for shareholders.
Warner Bros. shareholders are set to vote on the pending transaction on March 20. Still, no matter what Warner Bros. decides, the deal must be approved by government regulators.
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