{"id":474236,"date":"2026-02-17T17:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T17:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/474236\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T17:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T17:49:08","slug":"warner-bros-reopens-takeover-talks-with-paramount-after-receiving-a-waiver-from-netflix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/474236\/","title":{"rendered":"Warner Bros reopens takeover talks with Paramount after receiving a waiver from Netflix"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Warner Bros. Discovery is briefly reopening takeover talks with Skydance-owned Paramount<\/a> to hear the company\u2019s \u201cbest and final\u201d offer, while the Hollywood giant continues to back the studio and streaming deal<\/a> it struck with Netflix.<\/p>\n

In a Tuesday regulatory filing, Warner said it had received a waiver from Netflix to reopen talks with Paramount for the next seven days, or until Monday. Warner said this will allow the companies to discuss unresolved \u201cdeficiencies\u201d and \u201cclarify certain terms\u201d of Paramount\u2019s latest bid.<\/p>\n

But in the meantime, Warner\u2019s board is still recommending shareholders support of its proposed merger with Netflix. A special meeting is now scheduled for Friday, March 20 to hold a vote on that deal.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Netflix said it was confident that its proposed transaction \u201cprovides superior value and certainty\u201d \u2014 but recognized \u201cthe ongoing distraction for WBD stockholders and the broader entertainment industry caused by PSKY\u2019s antics.\u201d The streaming giant noted it had granted Warner a seven-day waiver to \u201cfinally resolve this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warner\u2019s leadership similarly reiterated its support for the Netflix deal. Paramount did not immediately respond to The Associated Press\u2019 request for comment Tuesday.<\/p>\n

In December, Netflix agreed to buy Warner\u2019s studio and streaming business for $72 billion now in an all-cash transaction<\/a> that would cover its legacy TV and movie production arms, as well as HBO Max. Including debt, the enterprise value of the deal is about $83 billion, or $27.75 per share, and would be finalized after Warner completes a previously-announced<\/a> separation of its cable operations.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, unlike Netflix, Paramount wants to acquire Warner\u2019s entire company \u2014 including networks like CNN<\/a> and Discovery \u2014 and went straight to shareholders with an all-cash, $77.9 billion hostile offer just days after the Netflix deal was announced in December.<\/p>\n

The enterprise value of Paramount\u2019s bid currently stands of $108 billion including debt, or $30 per share. But Warner disclosed Tuesday that a Paramount representative separately informed the company it would up its offer to $31 per share \u201cpending engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paramount has made more attempts to sweeten its bid<\/a> recently. Last week, the company said it would pay Warner shareholders an added \u201cticking fee\u201d if its deal doesn\u2019t go through by the end of the year \u2014 amounting to 25 cents per share, or a total of $650 million, for every quarter after Dec. 31. Paramount also pledged to fund Warner\u2019s proposed $2.8 billion<\/a> breakup payout to Netflix under its merger agreement.<\/p>\n

The company has been scrambling to gain more shareholder support. Paramount previously extended the deadline for tender offer three times. And according to company disclosures, more than 42.3 million Warner shares had been \u201cvalidly tendered and not withdrawn\u201d from its hostile bid as of the start of last week, down from over 168.5 million Warner shares<\/a> Jan. 21 \u2014 still a small fraction of Warner\u2019s 2.48 billion shares outstanding in series A common stock.<\/p>\n

But also last week, one activist investor, Ancora Holdings, publicly expressed opposition to Warner\u2019s proposed merger with Netflix \u2014 urging the board consider Paramount\u2019s latest offer. And what, if anything, changes after the next seven days has yet to be seen.<\/p>\n

Paramount, Warner and Netflix have spent the last couple of months in a heated back and forth over who has a stronger deal on the table.<\/p>\n

Paramount has argued that its offer is superior \u2014 notably taking issue with the \u201csliding scale\u201d payout of Netflix\u2019s transaction that could range from $21.23 to $27.75 per share, depending on debt spanning from Warner\u2019s networks spinoff. It\u2019s also claimed Warner\u2019s board has been uncooperative. Meanwhile, Netflix and Warner have maintained that they\u2019ve struck the better deal, which they say will boost growth across the industry. And Netflix on Tuesday accused Paramount of \u201cmisleading\u201d shareholders about regulatory challenges.<\/p>\n

The prospect of a Warner sale to either company has raised tremendous antitrust concerns<\/a> from lawmakers worldwide, who are calling on regulators to carefully scrutinize a merger of this size.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Justice has already initiated its reviews, and other countries may also scrutinize either deal. Both Paramount and Netflix have said they received securities clearance from German authorities last month.<\/p>\n

Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery rose more than 2% in Tuesday morning trading. Paramount Skydance climbed nearly 6%, while Netflix\u2019s stock fell slightly.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Warner Bros. Discovery is briefly reopening takeover talks with Skydance-owned Paramount to hear the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,8039,219821,451,217,219822,3,4208,219820,3094,452,453,219819,5251],"class_list":["post-474236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-discovery","tag-discovery-warner-bros","tag-headlines","tag-netflix","tag-netflix-warner-bros","tag-news","tag-paramount","tag-paramount-offer","tag-skydance","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-warner-bros-discover","tag-warner-bros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}