Warner Bros. Discovery said late Thursday that it now prefers a sweetened offer from Paramount — including backer Skydance — over the $83 billion deal it had accepted from Netflix to buy the studio’s streaming service, movie studios and intellectual property.
Netflix announced it would not try to top Paramount’s bid. “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 company said.
Netflix had publicly challenged Paramount to make a better offer. At last weekend’s BAFTA ceremony, CEO Ted Sarandos told Deadline Hollywood that if Paramount wanted to outbid Netflix, it should “just put a better deal on the table.” Netflix also said it intended for Warner to operate as an independent studio and continue releasing films in theaters.
Paramount’s persistence appears to have carried the day. The studio had earlier proposed buying all of Warner — including cable properties such as CNN, TBS and Discovery — in a package valued at about $108 billion. This week, Paramount raised that offer by a dollar a share before Warner’s board named the revised Paramount proposal “superior” to Netflix’s agreement.
Sarandos met with White House officials hours before Warner’s announcement in an effort to advocate for the Netflix transaction; those meetings were confirmed by a White House official who requested anonymity. The official said President Trump did not meet with Sarandos.
Either deal would attract regulatory scrutiny. The Paramount proposal is expected to face a significant antitrust review by the U.S. Justice Department because it would combine major entertainment assets. Paramount already owns CBS and the streamer Paramount+, along with channels such as Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.
Paramount’s bid is backed by David Ellison and his family’s wealth — notably Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. David Ellison has argued to shareholders that his group might have an easier path through regulators. Observers have noted the Ellisons’ close ties to conservative political circles: Larry Ellison is a known financial backer of President Trump, and David Ellison was photographed giving a MAGA-friendly thumbs-up alongside U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham before the State of the Union.
The political angle extends to editorial shifts at CBS News since David Ellison’s appointment of Bari Weiss as editor in chief; President Trump has praised those changes. At a Semafor conference, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr said he was pleased with CBS’s direction under Weiss, noting the outlet’s move toward what he described as more fact-based, unbiased reporting.
