Paramount wins Warner Bros battle as Hollywood and Maga align
The decision by Netflix to exit the takeover race has left the industry and Washington watching as paramount Skydance emerged the winning bidder for Warner Bros assets. Netflix said the deal was "no longer financially attractive" after declining to match the higher offer.
Paramount emerges the winner
Paramount Skydance emerged as the winning bidder for Warner Bros Discovery’s studio and streaming assets, a deal that still requires the approval of WBD shareholders and government regulators. Different figures for the competing bids appear in public accounts: Netflix’s board had accepted an $82. 7bn offer in December, while Netflix’s former bid is also referred to as about $83bn; a higher offer from Paramount is cited as $111bn in one account and $110bn including debt in another. Paramount’s offer is tied to per-share figures: Paramount’s latest bid stood at $31 per share while Netflix had offered $27. 75 per share for the same assets.
Deal timeline and bid mechanics
Warner gave Netflix four business days to submit a counteroffer on Paramount’s latest bid. Netflix made its decision on Thursday evening and responded less than two hours after that deadline was set, declining to raise its proposal and saying the new price made the deal “no longer financially attractive. ”
Market reaction and investor views
Investors cheered Netflix’s withdrawal. Netflix’s stock jumped more than 10 percent on Friday; the company’s shares had shed more than 18 percent since it announced its deal with Warner Bros on December 5. Shares of the David Ellison-led Paramount were up 17 percent. Analysts and investors offered varied takes: Ben Barringer, head of technology research at Quilter Cheviot, called the move “a tick in the box” for discipline. HSBC analysts said Netflix’s withdrawal would free the company to refocus on its business while Paramount Skydance (PSKY) would be saddled with sizable deal debts. Commentary noted the deal’s valuation metrics: Paramount’s bid, valued at $110bn including debt in one account, represents nearly 13 times Warner Bros’ EBITDA this year by LSEG estimates, compared with about 7 times estimated earnings on the same basis for Paramount itself.
Political pressure in Washington
The takeover fight unfolded amid clear political pressure. Netflix boss Ted Sarandos went to the White House and met Department of Justice officials and Attorney General Pam Bondi; that meeting had been arranged several weeks before. In a separate intervention, the president posted on Truth Social that Netflix needed to fire board member Susan Rice “IMMEDIATELY or pay the consequences. ” Rice was national security advisor to Barack Obama and had said on a recent podcast that it was “not going to end well” for companies that “take the knee” to Trump. The president’s post followed one by far-right activist Laura Loomer, who had accused Rice of being “anti American. ” Republican Senator Ted Cruz echoed that line, asking, “does Netflix stand by their board member threatening punishment and persecution for half of America that dares to disagree with her. ” Loomer and other MAGA supporters also pointed to Netflix’s multi-year deal with the production company Higher Ground, run by the former president and Michelle, as evidence the company is aligned with the Obamas; in that view, a bigger Netflix was a liberal outlet that should be opposed.
Corporate statements and executive perspectives
Netflix framed its exit in business terms. In a joint statement, co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said, “We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros′ iconic brands, ” and added, “But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price. ” Earlier, when Sarandos appeared before the antitrust committee in February, he pushed back on a Republican lawmaker’s suggestion that the company is “overwhelmingly woke, ” saying its programming reflects all sides of political debate. Observers noted Netflix’s long-stated aim of presenting itself as a service without political agenda and a goal to entertain the world.
Staff fears at CBS News and
Newsroom staff at CBS News and reacted with alarm to Paramount’s victory and Netflix’s withdrawal. Some staffers said they feared a merged Paramount-WBD would mean significant job cuts if duplicative services were eliminated. One producer who was not authorized to comment said, “A Paramount-WBD merger is a disaster for the people who work at both companies, and if Bari Weiss takes control of, it will be the end of the global network Ted Turner founded. ” The same source added, “I don’t think that’s hyperbolic. ” A second staffer said, “because is so big and makes so much money, it was always going to attract the Ellisons. ” Multiple CBS News staffers resorted to curse words on reading the news: “Fuck, fuck, fuck, ” said one producer, and “Well, fuck, ” said another CBS News staffer. A third CBS News staffer said they expected their department to be axed if a merger led to cuts, as is standard for media mergers.
Particular concern centered on Bari Weiss, described as a conservative commentator turned media entrepreneur with no previous television industry experience, whose uneven tenure at CBS began after she was appointed editor-in-chief last October. Her path to the job was said to have been paved by concessions David Ellison and Skydance Media made to gain the support of Trump-picked regulators to acquire Paramount. Critics warned of editorial shifts: Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, predicted that “[Paramount Skydance chief executive David] Ellison will readily throw the first amendment, ’s reporters and HBO’s film-makers under the bus if they stand in the way of expanding his corporate empire and fattening his pockets, ” and added, “But censorship is bad for business. WBD executives and shareholders should recognize that selling companies that depend on the first amendment to a censorial White House puppet is not only morally wrong but harmful to their bottom line. ”
Paramount’s victory would add and HBO to its portfolio; HBO is noted for hit shows including Succession and Game of Thrones and for award-winning documentaries. WBD chief executive David Zaslav said the merger “will create tremendous value for our shareholders. ” WBD is scheduled to hold a global town hall for employees late on Friday morning. In a Thursday-evening memo to employees, chief executive Mark Thompson urged staff not to jump to conclusions about what the acquisition would mean for the network; the remainder of that memo is unclear in the provided context.
Observers also flagged strategic questions about the deal: commentators noted that the tie-up would give Paramount access to Warner’s intellectual property, including franchises such as Fantastic Beasts and The Matrix, and reshuffle the streaming landscape by combining Paramount’s streaming unit with HBO Max and Discovery+. Critics questioned whether the move was driven by corporate ambition and ego as much as by business logic; Ross Benes, senior analyst at Emarketer, said, “WBD’s largest asset is declining, and the company is still under debt from its last failed merger. But this deal is more about Ellison taking over Hollywood and ego than it is about good business sense. ” Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at A, is also quoted in accounts of market reaction, though that attribution is incomplete in the provided context.
For now, the industry and newsrooms await shareholder and regulatory decisions as the deal process continues and the fallout from Netflix’s choice to walk away plays out.
