Netflix pulls out, now Warner Bros Discovery goes straight in the direction of Paramount Skydance | EUROtoday

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In the tip, the twist has the sharp sound of a door slamming. Netflix leaves the negotiating room and, in doing so, clears the hall: Paramount Skydance stays virtually alone in focusing on Warner Bros Discovery, with a suggestion that the group’s board led by David Zaslav has already branded as a “superior proposal”. And the market, as usually occurs, does not do philosophy: it does percentages. Netflix inventory jumps within the after hours, buyers completely happy to see it hand over one of many heaviest – and riskiest – dossiers in current media historical past.

The give up is written in a press release that has the texture of a lesson in monetary self-discipline recited in a agency voice: “The transaction we negotiated would create worth for shareholders with a transparent path to regulatory approval. However, now we have all the time been disciplined and, on the value requested to match Paramount Skydance’s newest supply, the deal is now not financially enticing, so we refuse to match Paramount Skydance’s supply.”

The message is clear: to break even with the 31 dollars per share put on the table by Paramount-Skydance, Netflix would have had to go beyond the limit it had set itself. And it doesn’t. Not now. Not with the shadow of antitrust looming over an operation that, just imagining it, would have made legal offices and regulators tremble on both sides of the Atlantic.

The paradox is that the renunciation comes while the co-CEO of Netflix, Ted Sarandos, was in Washington to push on the Trump administration, in an attempt to convince officials and decision-makers that the marriage with Warner was clean, digestible, approveable. Four business days were there, written on the calendar: until Wednesday, March 4, 11:59 pm ET to relaunch. Instead, the rift is immediate: less than two hours after Warner’s move, Netflix closes the notebook.

Behind the scenes, the numbers inform an actual battle. Netflix signed a deal value $27.75 per share in December, with an total valuation near $83 billion (together with debt). Then Paramount Skydance upped the ante: not only a piece, however all of Wbd, together with HBO, CNN, the cable networks and the spine of a studio that weighs like a surname in Hollywood. The newest supply, introduced on February 24, brings the valuation to round 111 billion. Not solely that: extra ensures, extra penalties, extra insurance coverage.