Paramount Skydance submitted a higher offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday, intensifying efforts to derail the HBO Max owner’s deal with Netflix.
Read this also What Netflix’s Warner Bros. Discovery deal means for viewers
The bidding war for some of Hollywood’s most coveted properties, including the “Harry Potter” and “Game of Thrones” franchises, has raised the stakes for dominance in the streaming-based market.
Paramount’s new bid — which betters the initial offer of $108.4 billion for the entire company, or $30 per share — seeks to address Warner Bros.’ concerns about the certainty of its financing, the source said.
Reuters could not immediately determine how the bid was modified. Warner Bros. and Paramount declined to comment, while Netflix could not immediately be reached.
Warner Bros.’s chosen rival Netflix, which had offered to buy the studio and streaming assets for $27.75 a share in cash or $82.7 billion, is allowed to match David Ellison-led Paramount’s latest bid.
Netflix has ample cash and could raise its offer to own HBO Max, while Paramount’s rival bid is backed by Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison.
The CBS parent was asked to submit its “best and final offer” after Warner Bros. rejected an increased bid, which included paying Netflix $2.8 billion in termination fees and adding a 25 cent per share quarterly “ticking fee” starting next year to compensate Warner Bros. shareholders for any delays in closing the deal.
Warner Bros. said Paramount’s February 10 offer still fell short of what its board considered a better offer and was given a seven-day deadline until February 23 to submit a revised offer.
MoffettNathanson analysts previously said Paramount’s $34 per share offer would end a bidding war and “avoid further debate over the value of Discovery Global.”
Warner Bros. plans to spin off Discovery Global, which owns cable TV properties such as CNN and HGTV, for a deal that Warner Bros. estimates could fetch between $1.33 and $6.86 a share.
Netflix said its offer gives Warner Bros. shareholders additional benefits from the Discovery Global spinoff, which WBD argues will increase value by giving the new company greater strategic, operational and financial flexibility.
However, Paramount has said that the cable spinoff effectively renders the core of the streaming giant’s offering redundant.
David Zaslav-led Warner Bros. is under pressure from Ancora Capital after the activist investor built a nearly $200 million stake in the HBO owner and accused the company of failing to adequately engage with Paramount.
The investor warned that if Warner Bros. refuses to re-engage in discussions with Paramount, he will vote against the Netflix deal and hold the company’s board accountable during its annual meeting.
Warner Bros. shareholders were set to decide the fate of the Netflix offering on March 20, a vote expected to be a key moment in the high-stakes bidding war to seal the future of one of Hollywood’s most prestigious movie studios.
Investors’ greenlight would allow the deal to move forward, but it would still face intense scrutiny from U.S. and European competition authorities, who must assess whether combining Netflix’s global streaming power with Warner Bros.’s century-old studio properties would reduce competition or limit consumer choice.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has raised concerns about potential harm to consumers and creatives.
Paramount said it has already secured foreign investment approval in Germany and is in talks with antitrust regulators in the US, EU and UK. Paramount has repeatedly argued that it has a clearer path to regulatory approval than Netflix.
Paramount’s bid would create a bigger studio than market leader Disney and bring together two major TV operators in a move that some Democratic senators say would control “almost everything Americans watch on TV.”
Shortly after acquiring CBS News and installing Bari Weiss as its editor-in-chief, it would also hand control of CNN to the conservative-leaning Ellison.
For Netflix, the combination with HBO Max would make it the largest global streaming player with nearly half a billion subscribers.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has expressed confidence in winning approval, saying the company’s bid would be better for Hollywood because it would avoid job cuts in an industry already hit by reduced production and uneven box-office returns.
The streaming leader said during negotiations on the deal that a potential combination of its streaming service with HBO Max would benefit consumers by reducing the cost of the bundled offering.
But its argument that it needs Warner Bros. to compete with YouTube, America’s most watched TV distributor, could face opposition from the Justice Department.
As part of its regulatory review, the US Justice Department is investigating whether Netflix engaged in anti-competitive practices.
Netflix pointed to data from media analytics firm Nielsen showing that Google’s YouTube spends more time on American television than other streaming services.
published – February 24, 2026 02:25 PM IST