🔥🚨BREAKING: Netflix just dropped out the massive bidding war for Warner Discovery resulting in Paramount being awarded Warner Brothers.
Netflix co-CEOs Ged Sarandos and Greg Peters released a statement saying the deal was “no longer financially attractive.” pic.twitter.com/HFQQfi6qO4
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) February 27, 2026
That’s All, Folks: Netflix Walks Away From Warner Bros., Refusing To Raise Offer
Netflix has thrown in the towel and won’t be raising its offer for Warner Bros. to match a rival bid by Paramount — game-changing news that caps several days of action around the bidding war.
The move comes two hours after Warner Bros. Discovery said it determined that the latest offer it received from Paramount was superior to the $82.7 billion deal it signed with Netflix on December 5.
Netflix still had four business days to match Paramount’s offer but decided, why wait? Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters regretfully took the company out of the running, saying, “We’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive.” Read a joint statement from the two executive below.
Netflix investors are relieved, no regrets. The stock is up 10%.
https://deadline.com/2026/02/netflix-declines-to-raise-offer-for-warner-bros-1236738005/
Larry Ellison is already a major stakeholder in CBS and Paramount. Now CNN and HBO are in his sights, and a big TikTok deal is close. If all goes as anticipated, this tech billionaire, already one of the richest men in the world and a founder of Oracle, is poised, at 81, to become one of the most powerful media and entertainment moguls America has ever seen.
For the rest of us, the effect of Mr. Ellison’s gambit could be every bit as consequential, if not more so, than what happened a generation ago when Rupert Murdoch brought his brand of Down Under snark and cynicism to create what has become Fox News, intensifying our political polarization.
Mr. Ellison’s expected incursion into Hollywood and Big Media, if successful, could also go well beyond what other tech moguls like Jeff Bezos and Marc Benioff have attempted through their acquisitions of The Washington Post and Time magazine, respectively. For those men, the acquisitions were more like expensive hobbies.
Mr. Ellison is up to something very different: transforming himself into a media magnate. Along with his son, David, he will have a material stake in a powerful social media platform, an iconic Hollywood movie studio and one of the largest content streaming services, as well as two of the country’s largest news organizations. Given Mr. Ellison’s friendship with, and affinity for, Donald Trump, an increasingly emboldened president could be getting an extraordinarily powerful media ally — in other words, the very last thing our country needs right now.
Wall Street seems thrilled that Netflix is walking away from its deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery.
Shares of the streaming giant were up nearly 10% in after-hours trading, at more than $92, after Netflix declined to increase its offer for the film and media giant after the company’s board declared Paramount Skydance’s new bid was a “superior proposal.” Netflix’s stock had closed Thursday at $84.59.