Financial magazine Barron’s says the Netflix deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery is all but dead and that the streaming giant should look for a “graceful exit” to get out from under the eight-figure effort.
The magazine now speculates that Paramount Skydance is now the front runner in the bid to buy Warners.
As the sale drama continues, Warners board said on Thursday that the latest $31 per share offer from Paramount “could reasonably be expected to lead” the Netflix agreement with its $27.75 per share offer, Barron’s reported.
Should Warners announce that the Paramount offer is officially the current top bid, Netflix would have four business days to make a counter offer.
But some analysts are questioning just how serious Netflix is over the idea of buying Warners, and bowing out to let Paramount’s bid stand might be the best way to move on without consequence. And Barron’s says that the “most likely outcome” now is that Netflix will walk away from the bidding war.
“This could be a graceful way for Netflix to exit, which their shareholders will likely receive positively—although we do not expect sentiment to return Netflix to its prior highs from last summer,” Seaport Research Partners analyst David Joyce in his most recent research note.
Indeed, Netflix shares have slumped 24 percent since its offer to Warners was reported on December 5 as investors worry about the streaming giant taking on Warners’ $50 billion debt.
Still, Netflix boss Ted Sarandos announced that he will meet with will meet with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, antitrust officials from the Department of Justice, and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles to discuss the merger deal Breitbart News reported.
The meeting comes as Netflix faces a series of stiff headwinds with the feds seeking more input on the deal from theater owners, filmmakers, and producers, many of whom have voiced alarm at the deal between Netflix and Warners.
There is resistance from the states, as well. A group of 11 GOP state attorneys general have published a letter calling for a “full and robust” review of the deal saying that the purchase could give Netflix “undue market concentration that stifles competition” and create “higher prices, lower reliability, and less innovation for one of America’s major industries—all to the detriment of American consumers.”
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