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Netflix pulls out of Warner Bros race
Paramount Skydance is on course to win the Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) takeover battle after rival Netflix stepped away.
The World's largest streaming service had been in pole position to land a deal by which it would pay $27.75 per share for Warner's studio and HBO Max streaming businesses, valuing the divisions at almost $83bn (£61.6bn) including debt. Netflix had been invited to raise its bid after Paramount submitted a final offer, for the whole WBD business, of $31 per share earlier this week that ultimately concluded a ping-pong process of sweetened bids.
That final offer valued WBD at $111bn (£82.4bn) including debt. Money latest: UK's 'best' and 'worst' airlines revealed Warner's board declared on Thursday night that while it continued to recommend the offer by Netflix, it now considered the proposal from Paramount as "superior" - its first hint of support for the bidder declared as hostile when the saga began back in December.
Netflix responded by pulling out of the process just hours later, declaring that a deal was "no longer financially attractive". Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said: "We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros' iconic brands.
But this transaction was always a 'nice to have' at the right price, not a 'must have' at any price." The decision to withdraw does not mean that Paramount has WBD in the bag just yet. The board is yet to give its blessing to the deal though WBD has changed its tone and voiced support for the bid for the first time.
CEO David Zaslav used a statement to declare that Paramount's offer "will create tremendous value.
Amir Nisi
Creative and experienced content writer with 6+ years of experience lazy to create unique content strategy for News5 to turn website visitors into customers.
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