On Thursday, WBD’s board deemed Paramount’s revised offer “superior”, giving Netflix four business days to match it. But on the same day, Netflix, which had recently stressed its desire to walk away from mergers deemed excessively expensive, said it would no longer pursue the acquisition.
A statement released last night from Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said:
The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval. However, we have always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offering, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid.
The CEO said the WBD merger was “always a ‘good to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.”
The stocks of Netflix and Paramount have declined steadily since Netflix announced their planned merger. Following yesterday’s announcement, Netflix shares rose more than 10 percent in after-hours trading, and Paramount shares rose 5 percent.
In a statement quoted yesterday by The Hollywood Reporter, WBD Chairman and CEO David Zaslav said, “Once our board votes to adopt the Paramount merger agreement, it will create tremendous value for our shareholders. We are excited about the potential of the combined Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery and can’t wait to begin working together to tell stories that impact the world.”
The article was edited to correct ticking fee information.
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