It’s over between Warner Bros and Netflix. After months of drama, it has been learned that the streaming giant has stepped back from the bidding war, and Paramount Skydance is now poised to acquire the oldest studio.
On Feb. 26, Netflix formally announced that it was withdrawing from the bidding war, stating that the deal was no longer “financially attractive.”
The shocking decision came after WBD gave the company four business days, until Wednesday, March 4, to submit a new proposal following Paramount’s revised offer, which raised the bid to $31 per share.
In a joint statement, Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, said,“The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval,”
Saying that this transaction was always a ‘’nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.”
“However, we’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid. Warner Bros. is a world-class organization, and we want to thank David Zaslav, Gunnar Wiedenfels, Bruce Campbell, Brad Singer and the WBD Board for running a fair and rigorous process. We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.’ iconic brands, and that our deal would have strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the US,’’ they said.
Netflix stepped out of the deal after David Ellison’s Paramount took the bar of the deal to the next level, after they submitted a revised proposal, the 10th in total, to acquire WBD. On Feb 24, Paramount Skydance Corporation increased the price to $31 per WBD share in cash to acquire the whole company, up from $30.
Netflix is out of the picture, and Paramount has finally become the clear winner in this bidding war, days after it offered a new deal to Warner Bros, which is home to several iconic shows and legendary characters. However, as of now, WBD has not announced any deal with Paramount. (Agencies)
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