Warner Bros. Discovery deems Paramount offer superior to Netflix

Warner Bros. Discovery said Thursday it’s valued Paramount Skydance’s latest takeover offer as superior to a deal with Netflix, another twist in the ongoing battle for the legacy media assets.

Netflix will have four business days to make changes to its own proposal, the WBD board said in a statement.

Earlier this week, Paramount raised its offer to $31 per share, up from $30 per share, all cash. It was the latest amendment to Paramount’s multiple offers in recent months — and since moving forward with a hostile bid to buy the company.

Warner Bros. Discovery agreed in December to sell its studio and streaming businesses to Netflix for $27.75 per share, which values the assets at roughly $72 billion. The deal has a total enterprise value of approximately $82.7 billion.

Last week, Netflix granted WBD a seven-day waiver to re-engage with Paramount, resulting in the higher bid.

A Netflix spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Paramount’s offer is for the entirety of WBD, including its pay TV networks, such as CNN, TBS and TNT.

“We are pleased WBD’s Board has unanimously affirmed the superior value of our offer, which delivers to WBD shareholders superior value, certainty and speed to closing,” said Paramount CEO David Ellison in a statement on Thursday.

The latest Paramount bid also includes a $7 billion breakup fee in the event the proposed merger doesn’t win regulatory approval. The company has also agreed to pay the $2.8 billion breakup fee that WBD would owe Netflix if it were to no longer move forward with that deal.

In mid-January, in the midst of the earlier offers made by Paramount, Netflix amended its bid to all cash.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin in an interview last week that the company granted WBD the waiver to reopen Paramount talks in order to give shareholders clarity.

“Paramount had been making a ton of noise, flooding the zone with confusion for shareholders … including floating all these hypothetical offers and talking directly to the shareholders and bypassing the Warner Bros. Discovery board,” Sarandos said at the time. “So we’ve given the opportunity to get those shareholders exactly what they deserve, which is complete clarity and certainty.”

However, Sarandos had fallen short of commenting on whether Netflix would up its own offer.

On Thursday Sarandos arrived at the White House for a meeting with staff members about Netflix’s efforts to acquire the WBD assets, CNBC previously reported. He was not expected to meet with President Donald Trump.

WBD said Thursday its board continues to recommend in favor of the Netflix deal and hasn’t withdrawn or modified its recommendation.