Netflix Pulls Out From Warner Bros. Deal

<p>The saga of Netflix and Warner Bros&period; appears to be ending&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span class&equals;"article-contentstyles&lowbar;&lowbar;ArticleQuoteText-pei0rm-9 eBrxqM">Netflix&comma; Inc&period; announced that it has declined to raise its offer to buy Warner Bros&period; Netflix had earlier received notice from Warner Bros&period; Discovery &lpar;WBD&rpar; that its Board of Directors has determined Paramount Skydance’s &lpar;PSKY&rpar; latest proposal constitutes a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Superior Proposal” under the terms of WBD’s existing merger agreement with Netflix&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Paramount Skydance upped its offer to buy Warner Bros&period; for &dollar;31 per share in cash&period; Netflix refused to increase its own offer and will receive a &dollar;2&period;8 billion termination fee from Paramount&period; Netflix shares soared 13&period;7&percnt; Friday on news of the withdrawal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span class&equals;"article-contentstyles&lowbar;&lowbar;ArticleQuoteText-pei0rm-9 eBrxqM">Netflix issued the following statement in response from co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters&colon; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span class&equals;"article-contentstyles&lowbar;&lowbar;ArticleQuoteText-pei0rm-9 eBrxqM">The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval&period; However&comma; we’ve always been disciplined&comma; and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer&comma; the deal is no longer financially attractive&comma; so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span class&equals;"article-contentstyles&lowbar;&lowbar;ArticleQuoteText-pei0rm-9 eBrxqM">Warner Bros&period; is a world-class organization&comma; and we want to thank David Zaslav&comma; Gunnar Wiedenfels&comma; Bruce Campbell&comma; Brad Singer and the WBD Board for running a fair and rigorous process&period; We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros&period;’ iconic brands&comma; and that our deal would have strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the U&period;S&period;  But this transaction was always a &OpenCurlyQuote;nice to have’ at the right price&comma; not a &OpenCurlyQuote;must have’ at any price&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span class&equals;"article-contentstyles&lowbar;&lowbar;ArticleQuoteText-pei0rm-9 eBrxqM">Netflix’s business is healthy&comma; strong and growing organically&comma; powered by our slate and best-in-class streaming service&period; This year&comma; we’ll invest approximately &dollar;20 billion in quality films and series and will expand our entertainment offering&period; Consistent with our capital allocation policy&comma; we’ll also resume our share repurchase program&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;