Netflix sweetens Warner Bros bid with all-cash offer to block Paramount

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Tue 20 Jan 2026 08.35 EST
Last modified on Tue 20 Jan 2026 09.53 EST


Netflix has sweetened its $82.7bn (£61.5bn) offer for the studios and streaming businesses of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) by making it an all-cash deal, streamlining its potential completion in the face of a hostile bid from Paramount Skydance. The streaming company had originally secured the unanimous backing of the WBD board last month with a cash-and-shares proposal that valued the business at $27.75 a share.

The two companies said the switch to an all-cash offer – a plan first reported last week – at the same valuation as the original deal “simplifies the transaction structure, provides greater certainty of value for WBD stockholders, and accelerates the path to a WBD stockholder vote”.

Netflix said the offer would enable WBD investors to vote on the proposed deal as soon as April. “Our revised all-cash agreement will enable an expedited timeline to a stockholder vote and provide greater financial certainty at $27.75 per share in cash, plus the value from the planned separation of Discovery Global,” said Ted Sarandos, the streamer’s co-chief executive.

“The WBD Board continues to support and unanimously recommend our transaction, and we are confident that it will deliver the best outcome for stockholders, consumers, creators and the broader entertainment community.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/20/netflix-sweetens-warner-bros-bid-all-cash-offer-block-paramount

[Initech]

1. Fuck David Ellison. Fuck the Saudis. Fuck Jared Kushner.

Whatever stops this horrible deal from going through the better.

[EuterpeThelo]

2. Netflix simply HAS to win this

but I fear Mango Mussolini will try to block the merger out of sheer spite.

I watched a really interesting series this week on Netflix called "Titans: The Rise of Hollywood" that went into the history of all the major studios. It seemed really timely with this WBD deal in the headlines.

I didn't know that Mary Pickford was so involved in the business end of United Artists on top of being their star player. Recommended for anyone interested in that sort of thing.

[Montauk6]

3. Yah, I think it was Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D(emon).W. Griffith

I remember reading about it in "Final Cut" by Steven Bach who detailed the rise and fall of United Artists thanks to the making of Michael Cimino's "Heaven's Gate" (a CRIMINALLY underrated masterpiece, IMHO).

[EuterpeThelo]

4. Thanks, Montauk6!

I'll have to seek this out now.