Paramount reportedly lifts bid for WBD, but details unclear

24th Feb 2026 07:06

(Sharecast News) - Paramount Skydance on Tuesday confirmed it had sweetened its bid for Warner Bros Discovery as it looks to derail an agreed takeover by Netflix but did not disclose any details.

WBD said in a statement it was reviewing the offer. Paramount had tabled a $30-a-share offer worth $108bn, compared with Netflix's $83bn proposal.

"The Netflix merger agreement remains in effect, and the Board continues to recommend in favor of the Netflix transaction," Warner added and advised shareholders "not to take any action at this time with respect to the amended PSKY tender offer".

If Warner accepts the Paramount offer, Netflix has the option to match it under the terms of its deal with a four-day window to make a new offer.

Netflix gave WBD permission to talk to Paramount last week, with discussions resulting in a seven-day deadline for a revised offer to be made. If WBD agrees to Paramount's revised offer, it will have to pay a $2.8bn breakup fee to Netflix.

In the interim, US President Donald Trump waded into the bidding war over the weekend, ordering Netflix to remove the Democratic foreign policy expert Susan Rice from its board or "face the consequences".

WBD in December agreed to sell both its film studio and HBO Max streaming service to Netflix for $27.75 per share. Paramount, which owns CBS and MTV, countered in December with its hostile all-cash deal for the entire company including the cable business, which is being spun off into a separate company called Discovery Global.

However, this was rejected by WBD. Paramount earlier this month threw in a ticking fee of 25 cents a share to its offer for any delay in regulatory approval of the deal, which would add around $650m in cash value for every quarter the deal did not close by December 31.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com