By Dawn Chmielewski
Feb 24 (Reuters) – Warner Bros Discovery opened the door on Tuesday to Paramount Skydance after the rival bidder raised its offer to $31 per share.
The intense bidding war for the studio behind Batman and Harry Potter has reached a fever pitch, with the board signaling that Netflix may lose its place as the preferred suitor.
Paramount enticed Warner’s board back to the bargaining table last week by raising the possibility of an improved cash offer for Warner shareholders. In its revised bid, Paramount raised the termination fee it would pay should the deal fail to gain regulatory approval, to $7 billion — up from $5.8 billion. It also agreed to pay Warner shareholders 25 cents per share per quarter, for every quarter beyond September 30 that the deal does not close.
The rival bidder also agreed to contribute more equity, should banks raise concerns about Paramount’s ability to finance the deal when it closes.
Warner’s board said it has not determined whether the revised Paramount proposal is superior to the merger with Netflix, but that directors will engage further. Should a superior deal emerge, Netflix has four business days to revise its offer.
Netflix declined to comment.
“Paramount welcomes the WBD Board’s determination and looks forward to continuing to engage constructively with WBD to deliver the benefits of Paramount’s proposal to WBD shareholders, the creative community and consumers,” Paramount said in a statement.
The fight over Warner Bros is complicated by the fact that Netflix and Paramount are bidding for different sets of assets. Paramount’s bid, now at $31 per share in cash, is for the whole company. Netflix has offered $27.75 per share in cash, a total of $82.7 billion including net debt, for the movie and television studios, its catalog and HBO Max streaming service. Warner Bros plans to spin off its television division into a separately traded company, Discovery Global.
The value of Netflix’s bid depends partly on the debt level of Discovery Global and its equity value once it starts trading.
Warner’s board estimates Discovery Global could fetch between $1.33 and $6.86 a share, potentially lifting the total return to shareholders above Paramount’s earlier $30 a share offer.
“We expect shareholder lawsuits if Netflix is the ultimate winner, and because the deals are not apples to apples—with the suitors not vying for identical assets and other details surrounding the respective bids requiring discretion—determination of which deal is better will always be subjective,” wrote Matthew Dolgin, senior equity analyst at Morningstar.
