Netflix emerged victorious, offering what appears to be the highest and currently winning bid for Warner Bros. DiscoveryDeadline has learned and will begin exclusive negotiations to complete the deal. This ends a stormy day when Paramount act aggressively to take on the giant streamer and secure its own deal with WBD.
Netflix offered WBD about $28 a share, mostly in cash, the people said.
This is a rapidly evolving process that will fundamentally change the entertainment landscape. In October, WBD set its sights on starting the process after receiving three consecutive offers from Paramount. Warner had hoped to finalize the deal by mid-to-late December.
Netflix will acquire the streaming assets of Warner Bros. Studios and HBO Max. Paramount's offer was for the entire WBD. Bloomberg reports that Netflix has offered a breakup fee of $5 billion if the deal doesn't close. Comcast is also filing bids for studio and streaming businesses.
Paramount claims that it was the only one of the three proposals with a clear path to closureinsisting in a letter to WBD that rival proposals from Netflix and Comcast “present serious issues that no regulator can ignore.” He believes Netflix, the dominant streamer in the US and around the world, would face significant antitrust hurdles by adding HBO Max to the roster.
David Ellison's company also called the sales process unfair and illegal towards Netflix. WBD countered that its board “considers its fiduciary responsibilities with the utmost care and that they have fully and strictly complied with them and will continue to do so.”
In a veiled attack on WBD CEO David Zaslav, Paramount said that “the sales process has been marred by management conflicts, including potential personal interests of some members of management in post-transaction roles and compensation as a result of economic incentives embedded in recent amendments to the terms and conditions of employment.” Paramount offered Zaslav a role in the event of a merger. Zaslav's compensation agreement was recently restructured consider the sale of WBD rather than the originally planned formal division of its business into two public companies.
It seems fair to say that considerable animosity has built up between the two camps.
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