After a historic battle that has lasted for three months, Paramount Skydance is one step away from acquiring the historic film studios behind it to improve its offer.
“We have always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the agreement is no longer financially attractive, so we declined to match Paramount Skydance’s offer,” said the two executives who run Netflix together, Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters.
The reaction of the group’s executives streaming It comes after it exceeds the terms agreed with Netflix, allowing the Burbank-based group to directly contact Paramount.
“Warner Bros. Discovery, today announced that its Board of Directors, after consulting with its independent financial and legal advisors, has determined that Paramount Skydance’s previously disclosed proposal constitutes a “Superior Company Proposal” as defined in the merger agreement with Netflix,” the group led by David Zaslav said in a statement. By rating Paramount’s offer better, a period opened for Netflix to match or surpass it, but executives at the streaming group, owner of titles such as The Money Heist o The Squid Gamethey refuse to continue in the bidding. “This transaction was always a good opportunity at the right price, not an essential one at any price, they emphasize on Netflix, which regrets that the agreement has fallen through.
The latest offer presented by Paramount, owned by the Ellison family, the billionaire owners of the technology giant Oracle and friends of Donald Trump, has triggered the change of mind of Warner, which until this Monday unwaveringly supported Netflix. But the Ellisons offered a much higher price: $31 for each Warner title, plus an additional ticking daily of 0.25 dollars for each quarter that passes without the operation being approved as of September 30, 2026.
The Ellisons’ economic offer exceeds $111 billion compared to Netflix’s proposal of $27.75 per share, which does not reach $83 billion. Although the offer of the group that produces Strangers Things It is due to a smaller perimeter of Warner’s business, because it excludes the cable television business with the CNN channels and the Discovery entertainment universe.
Paramount’s offer also includes a regulatory termination fee of 7 billion in the event that the operation is frustrated due to competition or regulatory issues, plus an amount of 2.8 billion to pay compensation for breaking Netflix’s existing merger agreement. The offer also has a guarantee of 40,000 million from the personal assets of Larry Ellison, the second richest man in the world.
