Netflix backs off as Paramount bid tops Warner

In a pivotal move that could redraw Hollywood’s power map, Netflix has declined to raise its bid for Warner Bros Discovery’s studio and streaming assets, effectively clearing the field for Paramount’s higher offer. The back-and-forth had intensified over the past months, with Warner’s board signaling that Skydance-owned Paramount’s bid was superior to Netflix’s earlier proposal. Netflix said that the price required to buy Warner would become “no longer financially attractive.”

Paramount, which is backed by Skydance, raised its offer to acquire Warner’s entire business to $31 per share, a move aimed at bringing together Warner’s film and TV franchises with Paramount’s own iconic catalog. Unlike Netflix’s bid, Paramount wants control of Warner’s networks and operations, including CNN and Discovery, which would put CNN under the same umbrella as CBS and CBS’s parent company. The proposed combination would unite two of Hollywood’s remaining major studios and reshape the distribution and ownership of hits across film and television.

Warner’s stalwart lineup—Harry Potter titles, Barbie, DC franchises, and acclaimed TV series like The White Lotus and Succession—would sit alongside Paramount’s library, which includes Top Gun, Titanic, and The Godfather. A Paramount-Warner merger would extend beyond studios to networks, extending the reach of CBS, MTV, and Nickelodeon under a unified banner. This potential deal is also seen as a test case for how regulators will view a consolidation in a rapidly consolidating media landscape.

With Paramount’s bid now deemed superior by Warner’s board, Netflix has four business days to decide whether it wants to counter. The development marks a turning point in what has been a high-stakes bidding war, one that could redefine who controls some of the industry’s most valuable IP and how content is produced, distributed, and licensed in the years ahead.

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