American streaming giant Netflix walked away from a deal to acquire Warner Bros Discovery, judging further participation in the talks to be economically unjustified. The company said that raising its bid to match a rival offer would have made the transaction “financially unattractive”.
Netflix had previously offered $27.75 per share in cash, valuing Warner Bros Discovery at roughly $82.7 billion including debt. To outbid Paramount’s improved $31-per-share proposal, however, it would have had to raise its price substantially. Netflix co-chief executives Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters stressed that any acquisition was viewed as “a nice-to-have at the right price”, not a strategic necessity at any cost.
The market welcomed Netflix’s decision: the company’s shares rose by more than 13% in after-hours trading.
Paramount, by contrast, continues to press ahead with its bid for Warner Bros Discovery. The company opened talks back in September, and eight of its proposals have been rejected so far. Unlike Netflix, Paramount is seeking to acquire WBD’s entire business outright. If completed, the deal would give it control over key assets such as CNN and HBO, as well as major film franchises, including Harry Potter and Batman.
The deal carries a pronounced political dimension. David Ellison, the head of Paramount Skydance, draws on the backing of his father, billionaire Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle and a well-known donor to Donald Trump. During the protracted battle for Warner Bros Discovery, the US president has repeatedly intervened, publicly speaking in Paramount’s favour. The latest episode came over the weekend, when Trump urged Netflix to remove former national-security official Susan Rice from its board, warning of “consequences”.
Notably, the statement came a day after the US Department of Justice cleared Paramount’s bid on antitrust grounds, effectively removing the deal’s key regulatory obstacle.