Warner Bros. Acquisition Battle Heats Up as Paramount Refuses to Back Down
The battle for Warner Bros. continues in the final days of 2025 as the media company’s answer to Paramount’s latest bid to take over the acquisition from Netflix is revealed. According to Bloomberg’s report on December 30, Warner Bros. Discovery intends to reject Paramount Skydance’s takeover offer when the company’s board of directors meets next week. Per the report, Warner Bros. “remains unmoved and is waiting for Paramount to increase the financial terms of its offer.” A final decision on Paramount’s latest bid won’t be made until the next meeting.
Paramount recently amended the terms of its bid for Warner Bros. following its previous takeover offer was rejected. After being turned down the last time, Larry Ellison, Paramount CEO David Ellison’s father, guaranteed $40.4 billion in equity to finance the company’s bid against Netflix.
On December 5, Netflix officially announced that it would be acquiring Warner Bros. in a massive industry-changing deal. Winning the bidding war against rival studios like Paramount and Universal, Netflix revealed that it would be purchasing WBD in a “cash and stock transaction valued at $27.75 per WBD share (subject to a collar as detailed below), with a total enterprise value of approximately $82.7 billion (equity value of $72.0 billion).” Though the Netflix and WBD merger still has to be approved by antitrust regulators, the former has continued to confidently move forward in promoting the brands’ union.
Netflix Moves Forward with Merger Plans
In mid-December, Netflix unveiled a design integrating WBD’s logo with its own on the new NetflixWBTogether site, which also proposes the benefits of the deal while putting major characters from the brands’ popular IP side-by-side, such as Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry Potter and Millie Bobby Brown’s Stranger Things hero, Eleven.
According to Netflix, the company expects the deal to be approved through the regulatory process and close in 12–18 months, which would put the timeline between December 2026 and June 2027. Just two weeks ago, Bloomberg reported that the Warner Bros. board defended rejecting Paramount’s deal due to Netflix “offering greater value, certainty, and terms than what Paramount has proposed.”
Paramount Refuses to Back Down
Still, Paramount isn’t giving up its fight to seal its name on this monumental media purchase and the rights to major brands and franchises like HBO, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and Dune. If the company was to accept Paramount Skydance’s offer and back out of the existing deal, however, WBD would have to pay Netflix a $2.8 billion breakup fee.
Once the Warner Bros. board meets again, a more detailed update regarding the company’s position on Paramount’s continued offers and progress with Netflix can be expected.
Founded on January 16, 2007, by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph, Netflix is a global streaming service offering on-demand access to movies, TV shows, documentaries, and original content. The company’s first original series was Lilyhammer, and it has since produced notable shows like Stranger Things, Squid Game, House of Cards, and Wednesday, as well as movies like KPop Demon Hunters, Bird Box, and Red Notice.
