Whoever follows it gets it. After months of negotiations between Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), Paramount Skydance and Netflix, the war between the streaming platforms streaming seems to have come to an end. The final point comes after the withdrawal of Netflix due to Paramount’s insistence on taking over Warner and its debt. It all dates back to mid-September 2025, when the merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media for $8.4 billion was confirmed.
A month after the agreement was formalized, the Paramount Skydance conglomerate began studying a possible acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The interest was given by the announced restructuring plan, which contemplated the division of its business into two different areas: cable television, on the one hand, and cinema and streamingon the other.
The announcement caused a strong reaction in the markets. Warner Bros Discovery shares rose up to 30% in the last few hours trading on Wall Street and closed the day with a rise of 28.7%. For its part, Paramount Skydance titles also benefited from the expectation, closing with a gain of 15.5%.
Paramount and Netflix’s first negotiations date back to December 2025
Weeks later, already in the month of November, Netflix also considered launching an offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery and acquire its film assets, after hiring a financial advisor and having access to confidential financial information. Until then, the figures at which both companies valued Warner had not been revealed.
Before Paramount beat him to it with a first offer, Netflix presented binding mostly cash proposal. This placed the on-demand content platform in a position against its biggest rival, but also ahead of other competitors such as Comcast, which was also interested in entering the operation.
Paramount Counterattack
Paramount did not take long to make a move. The American audiovisual company launched a hostile takeover bid of $108,400 to stay with the audiovisual conglomerate. This offering was backed by equity financing from the Ellison family and private equity firm RedBird Capital, as well as $54 billion in debt commitments from Bank of America, Citi and Apollo Global Management, the recently appointed owner of Atlético de Madrid. In addition to having $18 billion in cash for shareholders.
That did not attract Warner Bros. Discovery, which rejected the takeover bid.. Failing that, the board of directors decided to recommend to its shareholders that they reject the offer and support the agreement previously signed with Netflix. Warner management considered that, beyond the price, the terms, financing and security in closing the agreement with Netflix were more favorable than those proposed by Paramount.
Paramount ignored and reinforced its takeover bid with a guarantee of 40.4 billion dollars of Larry Edison, one of the richest people in the world, co-founder of Oregon. “Larry Ellison has agreed to provide an irrevocable personal guarantee of $40.4 billion of the equity financing for the offering and any claims for damages against Paramount,” the company said in a statement.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s insistence on Netflix
It was not enough either, since WBD rejected its offer again, moving even closer to Netflix. In fact, the conglomerate even said ‘yes, I want’ to the platform. streaming to absorb its studios, the HBO Max platform and the associated debt of $82.7 billion. As the saying goes, ‘whoever follows it gets it’, because Paramount changed its previous offer.
Netflix withdraws justifying that “the agreement is no longer financially attractive”
Warner shareholders would receive an additional fee that would compensate them if regulators delay completing the transaction. Warner Bros. Discovery, then, once again opened the door to more negotiations, since that point differentiated the platform from Netflix. In addition, Paramount Skydance also announced that it would bear a $2.8 billion penalty for breaking the agreement already signed with Netflix.
Paramount stays with WBD “at any price”
Finally, after months of intense negotiations and numerous offers to take over the conglomerate, Netflix has decided that it will not match Paramount’s latest offer and has submitted its withdrawal from the race. “We have always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we declined to match Paramount Skydance’s offer,” said the two executives who run Netflix, Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters.
In the same statement they have justified this decision by claiming that “this transaction was always a good opportunity at the right price, not an essential one at any price.” Paramount seems to be keeping WBD at any pricesince its financial situation has also been affected: it closed the last quarter with losses of 148 million dollars.
