Things in media M&A land continue to move fast with Netflix revealing Friday afternoon that it is $2.8 billion richer after receiving the fresh cash from Paramount. The David Ellison company’s “superior proposal” for Warner Bros Discovery, which was accepted by the WBD board, included paying out the termination fee if WBD walked away from its Netflix deal.
The giant streamer said WBD also informed it that their merger agreement is officially dead.
“On February 27, 2026, WBD provided notice to Netflix that it had terminated the Merger Agreement in accordance with its terms in order to enter into an Agreement and Plan of Merger with PSKY in respect of such Company Superior Proposal. Concurrently with the termination of the Merger Agreement and entry into such agreement between WBD and PSKY, PSKY, on behalf of WBD, paid the $2,800,000,000 termination fee owed to Netflix in accordance with the terms of the Merger Agreement,” Netflix said in an SEC filing.
Netflix shares are up a hefty 15% near market close after gaining 10% Thursday as the streamer walked away from Warner. Netflix investors never liked the deal, announced in December and the biggest acquisition in the company’s history. It would have seen Netflix pay $27.75 in cash, or about $83 billion, for Warner Bros Studios and HBO Max.
Watch on Deadline
Paramount launched a hostile tender offer for WBD shortly after the Netflix deal was announced and tried aggressively for months to break them up. It was ultimately successful with WBD calling its latest offer a “superior proposal” to Netflix. The streamer had four days to match but walked away immediately, saying “this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.”
Netflix shares are now back to about $96, up from a low of $75.