Warner Bros. Discovery announced Tuesday it will restart talks with Paramount Skydance following the media giant’s revised offer – potentially heating up a bidding war with Netflix once again.
Paramount last week sweetened its $30 per share all-cash offer with an agreement to pay the $2.8 billion termination fee to Netflix, as well as a “ticking fee” for WBD shareholders worth $650 million.
WBD said Tuesday that a Paramount representative implied the company was also willing to up its offer to $31 a share if Warner engaged in meaningful deal talks – after previously accusing the company of not giving PSKY a fair chance against Netflix.
In a statement Tuesday, Netflix said it has granted WBD a seven-day waiver to allow them to engage with Paramount Skydance.
“This does not change the fact that we have the only signed, board-recommended agreement with WBD, and ours is the only certain path to delivering value to WBD’s stockholders,” Netflix added.
In December, Netflix agreed to pay $27.75 a share in cash in a deal worth $72 billion to acquire WBD’s studio and streaming business – potentially creating a Hollywood mammoth that owns everything from “Stranger Things” to the “Harry Potter” franchise.
Warner Bros. said Tuesday it still favors the Netflix deal, adding that it will hold a shareholder vote on the offer on March 20. In the meantime, Netflix has the right to match any offer from competing bidders.
“We continue to believe the Netflix merger is in the best interests of WBD shareholders due to the tremendous value it provides, our clear path to achieve regulatory approval and the transaction’s protections for shareholders against downside risk,” WBD Chairman Samuel A. Di Piazza Jr. said in a statement.
But confidence is growing inside Paramount that WBD will ultimately jettison the Netflix deal over concerns it will face insurmountable regulatory scrutiny, while also questioning the valuation of the offer, The Post reported earlier this week.
Meanwhile, activist investor Ancora Holdings – which has built a nearly $200 million stake in Warner Bros. – plans to oppose the Netflix deal, arguing the board did not sufficiently engage with Paramount, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Paramount did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
While Paramount is seeking to acquire the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix’s deal hinges on the successful spin-off of Discovery Global, which includes cable assets like CNN, Discovery, TNT, TLC and Cartoon Network.
Paramount has argued that Versant, a flopped spin-off of NBCUniversal cable assets including CNBC and MS NOW, should act as a cautionary tale for WBD investors – claiming Discovery Global could be virtually worthless.
The company made several unsolicited offers for the entirety of WBD last year and accused the company of holding an unfair bidding process that unjustifiably favored Netflix.
Netflix on Tuesday slammed Paramount’s efforts as “antics” that amounted to an “ongoing distraction” for WBD shareholders.
