Warner Bros. says it’s re-opening talks with Paramount over its buyout offer

Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday (February 17, 2026) said it has restarted talks with Paramount Skydance over its buyout offer, giving the company a week to beat off the rival Netflix bid.

These discussions, scheduled to end on February 23, are designed to give Paramount Skydance a chance to make its “best and final offer.” Warner Bros. Discovery said in a statement that it prefers a Netflix merger and has scheduled a special shareholders meeting for March 20 to vote on it.

Television and film titan Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns cnnannounced in late October that it was open to acquisition proposals. Its board later accepted Netflix’s bid to purchase only the streaming and studio business.

Paramount Skydance wants to buy all of Warner Bros.’s Discovery for $108 billion. Netflix is ​​offering $83 billion for its more limited merger.

The Netflix offer does not include Warner Bros.’s television properties such as CNN and Discovery. If the deal goes through they will belong to a newly created, publicly traded company called Discovery Global.

Paramount Skydance has accused Warner Bros. Discovery’s board of failing to present shareholders with the details needed to properly compare its offer with the Netflix bid.

During the talks that began on Tuesday, Warner Bros. Discovery said it would “discuss the deficiencies that remain unresolved and clarify certain terms of PSKY’s proposed merger agreement.”

Paramount CEO David Ellison insists that his proposal, which is largely funded by his father, multi-billionaire Larry Ellison, would not face regulatory scrutiny in the US and Europe that could derail or seriously delay the Netflix deal.

With that in mind, Paramount has offered to pay Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders a “ticking fee” of 25 cents per share — about $650 million per quarter — for each quarter the deal does not close beyond December 31, 2026.

Paramount has also promised to cover an outstanding $2.8 billion termination fee if Warner Bros. Discovery backs out of the Netflix deal.

Paramount’s offering is entirely financed by $43.6 billion in equity commitments from Larry Ellison and RedBird Capital Partners, as well as $54 billion of debt financing from Bank of America, Citigroup and Apollo Global Management.

Critics say Netflix’s acquisition of Warner Bros. would give the streaming giant too much control over Hollywood production, which is already under pressure due to the streaming revolution and Netflix’s lack of commitment to theatrical releases for its films.

To address concerns about theatrical distribution, Netflix has committed to giving Warner Bros. films a 45-day theatrical window if acquired.

A successful purchase by Paramount would see a major media asset including CNN come under the control of the Ellison family, which has close ties to the Trump administration.

David Ellison’s recent acquisition of CBS, part of the Paramount empire, has brought major editorial changes to its news coverage that are widely seen as more sympathetic to conservative criticisms of mainstream media in the United States.

Larry Ellison is also a major investor in TikTok’s US operations at the invitation of President Donald Trump.

At a recent Senate hearing, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos faced questions from Republicans about alleged political bias, telling lawmakers that “Netflix has no political agenda of any kind.”