Netflix announces that it will not raise offer for WBD

Netflix will not be increasing its offer to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.

WBD issued a press release prior to the announcement that it had gotten a revised offer from Paramount Skydance that it felt was better than the deal offered by Netflix. This opened up a four business day window for Netflix to either match or improve its bid for WBD.

Netflix declining to match or improve its bid for WBD, which owns a minority stake in AEW, means that WWE’s streaming partner is no longer in the running to acquire WBD.

Netflix issued a press release on Feb. 26 with the following response 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. 

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.