When a company valued as much as Warner Bros. is on the table and as little as $83 billion is being thrown around, no one expected the whopping acquisition proceedings to wrap up quickly. Still, every week seems to bring a new development, and this week seems to be one where some very crucial decisions are made, as Warner Bros. Discovery has been handed yet another bid by Paramount Skydance, which the board is actively telling its shareholders it will review and take into consideration.
As per Variety, this all comes as Warner Bros. Discovery has been very vocal about moving forward Netflix's proposed and already accepted deal, instead of looking at what Paramount Skydance brings to the table, even if that deal is financially much larger at around $108 billion. The reason being seems to be that Paramount Skydance's bids are often tied up in a slate of loans that allow it to put together such an astronomical fee, all while Netflix's deal is more certain due to the immense wealth and value of the streamer.
It's unclear what Paramount Skydance is offering as part of this latest deal and how it has improved its former bids that Warner Bros. Discovery quickly shut down. But the board is still saying it will investigate this bid, while actively saying it recommends Netflix's alternative still, all as it prepares for a final vote on March 20, when the true future of WBD will be decided.
If this latest Paramount Skydance bid is accepted over Netflix's offer, the streamer will then have four days to improve its bid or alternatively decide to back out of the deal entirely, wherein it will then be paid a few billion dollars by WBD for going back on a formerly agreed upon deal.
We'll see how things change in the coming days and weeks, but as it stands, Netflix is still set to be the purchaser of Warner Bros. and the HBO Max streaming platform.