{"id":5153,"date":"2026-02-27T20:36:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T20:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/02\/27\/netflix-stock-surges-as-it-walks-away-from-warner-bros-deal\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T20:36:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T20:36:02","slug":"netflix-stock-surges-as-it-walks-away-from-warner-bros-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/02\/27\/netflix-stock-surges-as-it-walks-away-from-warner-bros-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix stock surges as it walks away from Warner Bros deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Netflix\u2019s stock is surging as investors applauded its decision to exit the race for Warner Bros Discovery, a months-long bidding war with Paramount Skydance for some of Hollywood\u2019s most prized assets.<\/p>\n<p>The stock jumped more than 10 percent on Friday. That came on the heels of Netflix\u2019s decision on Thursday evening that it would not match Paramount\u2019s latest $31 per share bid or raise its offer of $27.75 a share for Warner Bros\u2019s studio and streaming assets, stating that the deal was \u201cno longer financially attractive\u201d.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/economy\/2026\/2\/27\/canadian-pm-carney-heads-to-india-on-significant-trip-to-consolidate-ties\">Canadian PM Carney heads to India on \u2018significant\u2019 trip to consolidate ties<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/2\/27\/second-us-drone-laser-incident-this-month-prompts-texas-airspace-closure\">Second US drone laser incident this month prompts Texas airspace closure<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/longform\/2026\/2\/27\/like-its-2024-again-trump-takes-centre-stage-in-2026-midterm-elections\">\u2018Like it\u2019s 2024 again\u2019: Trump takes centre stage in 2026 midterm elections<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/counting-the-cost\/2026\/2\/27\/has-trumps-trade-strategy-lost-leverage\">Has Trump\u2019s trade strategy lost leverage?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Warner had given Netflix four business days to come up with a counteroffer for Paramount\u2019s latest bid \u2014 but Netflix, instead, responded less than two hours later, declining to raise its proposal. It said the new price it would have to pay made the deal \u201cno longer financially attractive\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros\u2032 iconic brands,\u201d Netflix\u2019s co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said in a joint statement. \u201cBut this transaction was always a \u2018nice to have\u2019 at the right price, not a \u2018must have\u2019 at any price.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The decision was welcomed by investors. Shares of the streaming giant had shed more than 18 percent since Netflix announced its deal with Warner Bros on December 5.<\/p>\n<p>The latest move is a \u201ctick in the box\u201d for discipline, said Ben Barringer, head of technology research at Quilter Cheviot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat you want from a management team is an ability to look at acquisitions, value them, pay what they think is a fair price, but to not overpay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Analysts and investors had questioned whether Netflix\u2019s bid was a defensive attempt to block a future competitor or an offensive shift away from its historically disciplined build-versus-buy approach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA positive turn of events in our view, as we believe NFLX\u2019s withdrawal from the race will leave it free to refocus on its business, while its closest competitors grapple with long and distracting regulatory approval and merger integration processes, and with PSKY saddled with sizable deal debts,\u201d HSBC analysts said.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"hollywood-and-ego\">\u2018Hollywood and ego\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Shares of the David Ellison-led Paramount, meanwhile, were up 17 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Paramount\u2019s deal, valued at $110bn, including debt, represents nearly 13 times Warner Bros\u2019 EBITDA \u2013 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation or core profits \u2013 this year, according to estimates from LSEG. That is well above what Paramount is worth on the same basis, which is 7 times its estimated earnings.<\/p>\n<p>A tie-up with Warner Bros would allow Paramount\u2019s storied Hollywood studio to tap into Warner\u2019s deep trove of intellectual property \u2013 including franchises such as Fantastic Beasts and The Matrix \u2013 across film, television and streaming.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWBD\u2019s largest asset is declining, and the company is still under debt from its last failed merger. But this deal is more about Ellison taking over Hollywood and ego than it is about good business sense,\u201d said Ross Benes, senior analyst at Emarketer.<\/p>\n<p>For Paramount\u2019s streaming unit, a combination with HBO Max and Discovery+ would reshape its position in a streaming era long dominated by Netflix.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cParamount was the streaming market laggard, and it needs Warner Bros\u2019 content and capabilities to play catch-up. It will need more than Harry Potter for the deal to work its magic and enable Paramount to fight off Netflix, Disney and Amazon in the streaming wars,\u201d said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell.<\/p>\n<p>In the fight for Warner Bros, the Paramount consortium \u2013 backed by Larry Ellison, billionaire and ally of United States President Donald Trump, and led by his son, Paramount CEO David Ellison \u2013 also boosted its termination fee to $7bn and expanded its financing commitments, including $45.7bn in equity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a right price and wrong price for any acquisition, and the pressure is now on Paramount to prove the big financial outlay is worth it,\u201d said Coatsworth.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"concerns-of-editorial-shifts\">Concerns of editorial shifts<\/h2>\n<p>The proposed combination, which will still need the green light from both Warner shareholders and regulators, poses both antitrust concerns and questions of political influence.<\/p>\n<p>A merger between the two companies would put CNN under the same roof as CBS, which has already seen significant editorial shifts under new Skydance ownership. Paramount took steps to appeal to more conservative viewers in its news operations, notably with the installation of Free Press founder Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News. And if the company\u2019s takeover bid of Warner is successful, critics warn similar shifts could happen to CNN, a network that has long attracted ire from Trump.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPolitics are playing an outsized role in this deal, and they\u2019ve been on Paramount\u2019s side from the get\u2011go,\u201d said Mike Proulx, vice president and research director at Forrester, a market research company.<\/p>\n<p>Top Democratic lawmakers have also sounded the alarm about the Republican president\u2019s ties to companies, such as Paramount, and potential consequences of growing corporate power.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA handful of Trump-aligned billionaires are trying to seize control of what you watch and charge you whatever price they want,\u201d Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, a longtime antitrust hawk, said in a statement on Thursday night. She also called a potential Paramount-Warner combo an \u201cantitrust disaster\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>How regulators will respond to a Warner-Paramount deal remains to be seen. The US Department of Justice has already initiated reviews, and other countries are expected to do so, too.<\/p>\n<p>Warner shareholders will have to be convinced, too. But Paramount is taking on billions of dollars in debt to finance its offer \u2014 something critics have warned could only increase the likelihood of potential job losses and other restructuring down the road. Foreign sovereign wealth funds have also provided equity for the offer, drawing added scrutiny.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Netflix\u2019s stock is surging as investors applauded its decision to exit the race for Warner Bros Discovery, a months-long bidding war with Paramount Skydance for some of Hollywood\u2019s most prized assets. The stock jumped more than 10 percent on Friday. That came on the heels of Netflix\u2019s decision on Thursday evening that it would not &#8230; <a title=\"Netflix stock surges as it walks away from Warner Bros deal\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/02\/27\/netflix-stock-surges-as-it-walks-away-from-warner-bros-deal\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Netflix stock surges as it walks away from Warner Bros deal\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}