Netflix Backs Out of Warner Bros. Deal, Paving Way for Paramount Assimilation

The tide has seemingly turned on one of the biggest Hollywood deals in recent memory. While Netflix had been positioned as the most likely company to take over Warner Bros., the persistence of Paramount has apparently paid off.

On the heels of Paramount submitting a higher bid—one that the Warner Bros. Discovery board deemed a “superior proposal” earlier today—Netflix has responded by announcing it will not be raising its own offer.

Netflix released a statement on its website, explaining the decision. The response comes from co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters.

“The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval. 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,” the CEOs wrote.

After some praise for Warner Bros., which the statement calls “a world-class organization,” and for its board, which ran “a fair and rigorous process,” the Netflix bosses expressed some regret the deal didn’t work out. But they also explained why.

“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 U.S. But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.”

So far there’s been no response or comment from Paramount or Warner Bros. about what will come next.

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