Paramount set to acquire Warner Bros. after Netflix declines to match takeover offer

Paramount Skydance, run by pro-Trump technology heir David Ellison, is poised to take control of Warner Bros. Discovery after Netflix says it will not raise its takeover offer, ending one of the biggest media bidding wars in a generation.

The deal puts a constellation of media properties — from CNN to Nickelodeon to HBO — under the control of the family led by Oracle tycoon and White House ally Larry Ellison.

Netflix says it’s “declining to match” Paramount’s latest offer after the Warner Bros. board declared it a “Superior Proposal” under the terms of its existing merger agreement with Netflix.

“The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval,” Netflix says in a statement.

“However, we’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid,” it adds.

The company insists it “would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.’ iconic brands, and that our deal would have strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the US.

“But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price,” it concludes.

Without a Netflix counteroffer, the Warner Bros. Discovery board is now free to terminate its agreement with the streaming giant and proceed with Paramount.

The Paramount offer also includes financing from the sovereign wealth funds of three Middle Eastern countries — Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi — which could attract an additional layer of regulatory scrutiny.