Netflix has upgraded its $82.7bn (£61.5bn) offer for Warner Bros Discovery by making it an all-cash deal, aiming to speed shareholder approval and fend off a hostile bid from Paramount Skydance.
The revised offer keeps the valuation at $27.75 per share but removes shares from the structure, allowing a potential investor vote as early as April. Netflix said the change provides greater certainty, and the WBD board continues to unanimously support the deal.
WBD shareholders would also receive stock in a spun-off global networks business, including CNN and Discovery, which Netflix is not acquiring. Paramount is pressing ahead with a larger $108.4bn hostile bid but faces a proxy fight after a court rejected its legal challenge to the Netflix agreement.
