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Netflix has changed its agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery, switching to an all-cash deal rather than one that included a Netflix stock component.
The changed-up offer still values WarnerMedia, or at least the streaming/studios part of it, at $27.75 per share, which is what it has been since it was revealed last December.
Under the Netflix plan, the split will still happen within the next six to nine months prior to Netflix taking over the studio and streaming side of Warners.
Both Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery said the agreement “provides enhanced certainty” to WBD shareholders by “eliminating market-based variability”. Netflix’s share price has dropped by more than 12% since the deal was announced.
President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav (not pictured), who is reportedly set to earn nearly $500 million on the deal, says in a statement:
“Today’s revised merger agreement brings us even closer to combining two of the greatest storytelling companies in the world and with it even more people enjoying the entertainment they love to watch the most. By coming together with Netflix, we will combine the stories Warner Bros. has told that have captured the world’s attention for more than a century and ensure audiences continue to enjoy them for generations to come.”
A shareholder vote on the transaction is expected to happen in April. This amended, all-cash transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of directors at both Netflix and WBD.
Questions still remain about whether Netflix will honorco-CEO Ted Sarandos’s recent indications that he aims to preserve the studio’s current 45-day theatrical windows, with exhibitors understandably sceptical.
Source: Deadline
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