A few months ago, it looked probable that Netflix was going to acquire Warner Bros Discovery—owner of HBO, Cartoon Network, Warner Bros Games, and much more—but a hostile takeover bid from Paramount Skydance has won out.
On Thursday, the Warner Bros Discovery board deemed a $31-per-share offer from Paramount Skydance superior to the Netflix deal, and Netflix opted not to raise its own offer.
“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,” Netflix said in a statement. “But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.”
Barring any more surprises, Paramount Skydance will take the prize, and has agreed to pay a $2.8 billion termination fee owed to Netflix now that its pending deal has fallen through.
Senate Democrat Cory Booker immediately renewed a call for Paramount CEO David Ellison to attend a Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee hearing next week, Deadline reports. The already-scheduled hearing would previously have focused on the Netflix-Warner Bros deal, which subcommittee chair Republican Mike Lee has criticized.
Ellison and his father, billionaire Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, are allies of the Trump administration. According to sources cited by The Wall Street Journal in December, David Ellison has promised the administration that he’ll make sweeping changes to CNN, a frequent target of Trump’s ire, should he win out.
