Warner Bros. opens Paramount talks, but Netflix merger remains top priority

NEW YORK — Warner Bros. Discovery’s board of directors will begin negotiations with Paramount Skydance to clarify the terms of a potential takeover bid, the company announced.

The move comes after WBD previously rejected several offers from the firm led by David Ellison.

Despite the new talks, WBD continues to unanimously recommend a pending $83 billion merger agreement with Netflix. Shareholders are scheduled to vote on the Netflix deal on March 20.

Netflix granted WBD a limited seven-day window to negotiate with Paramount, which is set to expire on Feb. 23.

Paramount has suggested a purchase price exceeding $31 per share. The company also committed to paying a $2.8 billion termination fee to Netflix if its rival bid is accepted.

WBD is now requesting that Paramount confirm its final offer in writing. The company cautioned that there is no guarantee a definitive agreement with Paramount will be reached.

The battle for control over Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is entering its endgame, a pivot point that promises to fundamentally redraw the map of the global entertainment industry. The WBD board’s decision to engage in a strategic, albeit brief, negotiating window with the Paramount-Skydance consortium is a masterclass in leverage. By entertaining the bid, the board is simultaneously fulfilling its fiduciary duty to maximize shareholder value while applying immense pressure on Paramount to deliver a "knockout" offer. Crucially, the move also serves as a direct challenge to Netflix, signaled to either raise its bid or risk losing a generational asset.

This high-stakes standoff presents two divergent paths for the future of WBD. A consolidation with Netflix would solidify the streaming incumbent’s hegemony, effectively turning the historic Warner Bros. studios and the HBO prestige brand into exclusive content engines for a single platform. Conversely, a merger with Paramount would birth a traditional media behemoth of unprecedented scale—but one that arrives with the baggage of drastic austerity. Netflix’s public warning regarding $16 billion in potential cost-cutting serves as a calculated shot across the bow, aimed at alerting regulators, labor unions, and the Hollywood creative guild to the disruptive fallout of a Paramount tie-up.

The escalating rhetoric—highlighted by Netflix’s dismissal of Paramount’s maneuvers as "antics"—underscores the volatility of the current landscape. Netflix is positioning itself as the harbor of stability and strategic certainty in an era of cord-cutting and industry contraction. WBD shareholders now face a definitive choice ahead of the March 20 deadline: opt for the reliability of the Netflix model, or chase the higher-premium, high-risk proposition offered by a Paramount merger.

The outcome of this corporate merger battle will directly impact streaming platforms like HBO Max and Netflix, both of which have become staples in Vietnamese-American households. Ultimately, whichever company ends up owning major brands like HBO will dictate the future of our content libraries and monthly subscription fees.