The bidding war on Warner Bros. Discovery is suddenly over: a few hours ago, Netflix officially dropped out with a joint statement by its co-CEOs (Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters), who clearly explained that matching the latest price offered by competitor Paramount Skydance would have meant the deal was no longer financially attractive for the streaming giant. They added:
We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.’ iconic brands, and that our deal would have strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the U.S. But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.
Just a couple of hours before this statement from Netflix's top executives, the Warner Bros. Discovery board had declared Paramount's latest offer "the superior bid", giving Netflix four days to match it or abandon the negotiations. They quickly chose the latter.
The timeline of the Warner Bros. Discovery bidding war
Let's rewind the clock. Warner Bros. Discovery, formed in 2022 through the merger of AT&T and Discovery, officially went up for sale in the latter half of 2025. In October, the board confirmed it was already reviewing interest from multiple parties.
Just around five weeks later, Netflix announced a deal with the WBD board to acquire the Studio and Streaming assets for $72 billion (with a total evaluation of $82.7 billion). Three days later, though, Paramount Skydance announced its own $108.4 billion all-cash "hostile" offer. The WBD board initially recommended that shareholders reject the offer and accept Netflix's, but Paramount Skydance did not relent.
On February 10, 2026, Paramount upgraded its offer to include several key provisions:
- An agreement to cover the $2.8 billion breakup fee WBD would owe Netflix for walking away from their deal
- A commitment to backstop a debt refinancing that would cut WBD's costs by $1.5 billion
- A ticking fee of $650 million in cash per quarter if the deal was not completed by the end of 2026
That started turning the WBD board's heads away from Netflix, but the final bid was made on Tuesday, February 24, upping the offer to $31 per share in cash. For comparison, Netflix's offer was $27.75 per share. This means Paramount will acquire the entire WBD (whereas Netflix wouldn't have purchased the linear cable networks) for $111 billion, making it objectively the superior offer.
It's hard to say how that will affect Warner Bros. Discovery's gaming division (which just teased that major releases are expected either next year or the following year). However, we do know that Netflix did not factor WB Games into their offer at all, considering it to be "relatively" minor; on the other hand, Paramount does own Skydance Interactive, which has released several VR games, and Skydance New Media, Amy Hennig's studio working on Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra and the untitled Star Wars game.
Here's hoping they have a solid plan already in place for Warner Bros. Games.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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