Netflix has upgraded its $82.7bn (£61.5bn) offer for Warner Bros Discovery by switching to an all-cash deal, aiming to speed approval and block a hostile bid from Paramount Skydance.
The revised offer keeps the same valuation of $27.75 per share but removes shares from the structure, giving WBD investors more certainty and allowing a shareholder vote as early as April. The WBD board continues to unanimously back the Netflix deal.
WBD shareholders would also receive shares in a spun-off global networks business, including CNN and Discovery Channel, which Netflix is not acquiring.
Paramount is pressing ahead with a larger $108.4bn hostile bid and is seeking to replace WBD directors, but a Delaware court has already rejected its lawsuit challenging the Netflix agreement.
If WBD walked away from Netflix’s offer, it would owe a $2.8bn breakup fee and face billions more in related costs, a risk the board has cited in urging shareholders to reject Paramount’s bid.
