NEW YORK: Netflix is walking away from its offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business, in a stunning move that effectively puts Paramount in a position to take over its storied Hollywood rival.
On Thursday, Warner’s board announced that Skydanceowned Paramount’s latest offer to buy the entire company for $31 per share was superior to the agreement it had previously struck with Netflix. Warner gave Netflix four business days to come up with a counteroffer but Netflix instead responded less than two hours later, declining to raise its proposal. It said the new price it would have to pay made the deal “no longer financially attractive.”
“We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.’ iconic brands,” Netflix’s co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said in a joint statement. “But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.”
A Paramount buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery would reshape Hollywood and the wider media landscape. And unlike Netflix which was only eyeing Warner’s studio and streaming business Paramount wants the entire company. That means HBO Max, cult-favorite titles like “Harry Potter” and even CNN could soon find themselves under the same roof as Paramount’s CBS, “Top Gun” and the Paramount+ streaming service.
In a statement on Thursday night, CEO David Zaslav said Netflix executives had been “extraordinary partners” and that he wished them “well in the future.”
And if the company’s takeover bid of Warner is successful, critics warn similar shifts could happen CNN, a network that has long attracted ire from the US President Donald Trump.