A higher bid for TNT Sports parent company Warner Bros. Discovery is coming from Paramount, but what WBD thinks about it will be the crucial question that will have significant ramifications for both companies.
WBD, with Netflix’s blessing, gave Paramount a one-week window to submit its “best and final offer.” That period expires at 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, and Paramount, the parent company of CBS Sports, is submitting a bid of about $32 per share, according to industry sources and multiple reports. That would elevate beyond Paramount’s prior offers of $30 per share that WBD has rejected repeatedly.
Previously, WBD recommended a separate deal with Netflix for WBD’s studio and streaming businesses, a pact originally struck in December, worth $83 billion, and recently converted to an all-cash structure. Whether the forthcoming raised offer changes the sentiment of WBD’s board will be the latest, crucial wrinkle in this long-running drama.
Netflix, for its part, has remained confident about its chances to close the WBD deal. Last week, the streaming giant said upon granting the window, “While we are confident that our transaction provides superior value and certainty, we recognize the ongoing distraction for WBD stockholders and the broader entertainment industry caused by Paramount’s antics.”
If WBD’s board were to pivot and instead deem the new Paramount offer superior, Netflix will have four days to respond.
The ongoing saga has roiled Hollywood and political circles for months. U.S. President Donald Trump recently weighed in and said that Netflix should fire board member Susan Rice, a former adviser to Trump’s predecessor in the White House, Joe Biden.
There are significant sports media implications, too, regardless of how this ends, as the fate of TNT Sports hangs in the balance. In the Netflix deal, the operation would separate from WBD as part of a planned Discovery Global spin-off and embark on a separate, independent path from the WBD assets acquired by Netflix. In a Paramount deal, though, the entire company would be acquired, and the TNT Sports operations would be blended with those of CBS Sports.
