Warner Bros. agrees to reopen negotiations with Paramount

The Warner takeover saga continues, Paramount decides to review its offer.

This is a new twist in the Warner Bros. takeover affair. Discovery… If we thought the battle was lost for Paramount, which was doing everything possible to stay in the race, it was to underestimate its CEO, David Ellison, who is not ready to give up. Even if the Warner group leaned more towards Netflix’s offer which amounted to 83 billion dollars.

After being overtaken by the number 1 streaming platform, Paramount counterattacked by taking legal action against Warner. According to Bloombergthe Netflix competitor then met with several leaders of the European Commission including French President Emmanuel Macron in the hope of waking up “France’s historical sensitivity to acquisitions affecting its film industry (…) “Finally, Netflix’s rival ended up writing an open letter to the French industry.

In an attempt to reverse the situation, Paramount is now tackling the heart of the problem and has decided to improve its offering. To the initial deal of $30 per share is added a bonus of $650 million in cash for each quarter where the streaming giant’s competitive offer was not honored. Paramount also agrees to cover the $2.8 billion in breakup fees that Warner Bros. would owe to Netflix if the merger was not completed by December 31, 2026.

Warner Bros. still has doubts about Paramount’s offer, but for the first time the board considers that Paramount’s proposal could be better, or push Netflix to improve its own. And Variety confirms today that Warner agrees to open discussions with Paramount, even if the company “ccontinues to unanimously favorably recommend the merger with Netflix“. Warner shareholders are called to vote on March 20…