Paramount’s pressure campaign finally paid off, in the form of an opportunity to make an updated offer purchase Warner Bros., despite an earlier announcement by Paramount’s Board of Directors that it had accepted a rival offer from Netflix. Tuesday’s announcement came after a months-long series of maneuvers by Paramount, including lawsuits, making public statements on improved terms for their bid, and appealing directly to WBD shareholders. In the end, WBD’s Board of Directors agreed to give Paramount one more shot to make its “best and final” offer.
After an earlier cycle of bidding, Paramount’s Board of Directors already selected Netflix as its preferred suitor. Nonetheless, Netflix has agreed to give Paramount a limited seven-day window from February 17 to 23 to make an updated offer. Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos framed this as a “limited waiver” to give WBD shareholders “clarity” to determine for themselves which of the competing offers was superior.
Any deal to sell WBD will need to be approved by a majority of the company’s shareholders. Shortly after the news broke that Paramount had reentered the bidding, Netflix released a statement saying that Paramount had “repeatedly mischaracterized” Netflix’s offer by “flooding the zone” with misinformation and inaccuracies, and that the best way to call Paramount on their “antics” was to allow them to clarify their proposal.
Netflix has the right to match Paramount’s updated offer, meaning there could yet be more chapters in this saga.
