Netflix offers $83 billion all-cash deal for parts of Warner Bros. Discovery

Netflix announced on Tuesday that it had revised its December offer to acquire major parts of Warner Bros. Discovery, proposing to pay the $83 billion entirely in cash instead of with a mix of cash and stock. Netflix said the change simplifies the deal for investors who will no longer have to account for Netflix’s fluctuating stock price.

Warner Bros. Discovery had agreed in December to sell its streaming and studios business to Netflix in an $83 billion cash-and-stock deal. David Zaslav, the chief executive of Warner Bros. Discovery, said the revised merger agreement “brings us even closer to combining two of the greatest storytelling companies in the world,” and Ted Sarandos, co-chief executive of Netflix, said the offer would provide “greater financial certainty” for shareholders.

The move puts pressure on Paramount, whose chief executive David Ellison is also pursuing Warner Bros. Discovery. Warner Bros. Discovery rejected Paramount’s latest offer, saying it viewed that deal as riskier than Netflix’s. Paramount has modified the terms of its bid but has not increased its offer since Warner Bros.

Discovery chose Netflix; Paramount is offering $108 billion in cash for the whole company, or $30 per share. Warner Bros. Discovery said it is carving out its cable business—spinning off channels such as CNN and TNT into a separate publicly traded company—and will reduce the debt on that business by $260 million under the revised plan.

Key Topics

Business, Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, David Zaslav, David Ellison