Netflix announced this Thursday (26) that it has given up on buying Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). The streaming giant said it would not increase the offer, which paved the way for another Hollywood studio to close the deal. Paramount made a proposal of US$110 billion — the equivalent of around half a trillion reais.
Paramount’s proposal includes WBD’s debt and increases the fine it would pay if the deal is blocked by regulators, from US$5.8 billion to US$7 billion. This Tuesday (24), Warner considered the streaming company’s proposal “superior” and gave Netflix four days to send a new offer.
In a statement about the decision, Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said that the deal was no longer attractive and that, if the previous deal had gone through, the acquisition would have strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the United States.
