Netflix said on Thursday that it had backed away from its deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, a stunning development that paves the way for the storied Hollywood studio media giant to end up under the control of a rival bidder, the technology heir David Ellison.
Netflix said that it would not raise its offer to counter a higher bid made earlier this week by Mr. Ellison’s company, Paramount Skydance, saying in a statement that “the deal is no longer financially attractive.”
“This transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price,” the Netflix co-chief executives, Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, said in a statement.
Netflix had beat out Paramount in December to sign an $83 billion deal to acquire a large portion of Warner Bros. Discovery’s business, including HBO and the storied Warner Bros. movie studio. The acquisition was poised to cement Netflix, once a striving outsider to the film and entertainment business, as the pre-eminent juggernaut of Hollywood.
But Mr. Ellison, himself a relative newcomer to the industry whose bid is backed financially by his father Larry Ellison, the billionaire founder of Oracle, pledged to fight on. Paramount eventually submitted a revised offer of $111 billion, which Warner on Thursday had decreed a “superior deal,” giving Netflix four business days to decide if it would counter.
As it turned out, Netflix decided not to.
Credit: New York Times
Lauren HirschMichael M. Grynbaum and Benjamin Mullin
Netflix said that it would not raise its offer to counter a higher bid made earlier this week by Mr. Ellison’s company, Paramount Skydance, saying in a statement that “the deal is no longer financially attractive.”
“This transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price,” the Netflix co-chief executives, Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, said in a statement.
Netflix had beat out Paramount in December to sign an $83 billion deal to acquire a large portion of Warner Bros. Discovery’s business, including HBO and the storied Warner Bros. movie studio. The acquisition was poised to cement Netflix, once a striving outsider to the film and entertainment business, as the pre-eminent juggernaut of Hollywood.
But Mr. Ellison, himself a relative newcomer to the industry whose bid is backed financially by his father Larry Ellison, the billionaire founder of Oracle, pledged to fight on. Paramount eventually submitted a revised offer of $111 billion, which Warner on Thursday had decreed a “superior deal,” giving Netflix four business days to decide if it would counter.
As it turned out, Netflix decided not to.
Credit: New York Times
Lauren HirschMichael M. Grynbaum and Benjamin Mullin
