The ongoing saga between Netflix and Paramount to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery finally appears to be over.
Netflix announced today via a press release that they were not going to be raising their offer to acquire WBD after a recent, "superior" by Paramount. Earlier this week, WBD shared that Paramount moved forward with a revised offer that they determined was "superior" to the one offered by Netflix. This triggered a clause giving Netflix four days to improve their bid, which they have now declined to do.
Netflix - WWE's top media rights partners - is now out of the running to take over WBD, which not only airs AEW programming on their stations, but owns a 10% stake in AEW as well.
"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."
"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 U.S. But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price."
"Netflix’s business is healthy, strong and growing organically, powered by our slate and best-in-class streaming service. This year, we’ll invest approximately $20 billion in quality films and series and will expand our entertainment offering. Consistent with our capital allocation policy, we’ll also resume our share repurchase program."
"We will continue to do what we’ve done for more than 20 years as a public company: delight our members, profitably grow our business, and drive long-term shareholder value."
