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In an effort to sweeten the pot for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) shareholders, Netflix is now offering cash for shares of the company, revising the cash-and-stock deal it had struck with WBD\u2019s board earlier. <\/p>\n
However, the streaming giant is still offering the same $27.75 the companies had agreed on for WBD\u2019s movie studio and streaming assets, and the deal continues to value the company at $82.7 billion.<\/p>\n
The new offer serves to simplify the deal structure, the companies said<\/a> in a statement on Tuesday, \u201cprovides greater certainty of value,\u201d and speeds up the timeline for a shareholder vote. Netflix said it would finance the deal with cash, debt, and \u201ccommitted financing.\u201d<\/p>\n The change-up comes as rival suitor Paramount Skydance has intensified efforts to win over WBD\u2019s shareholders with its all-cash, $30-per-share offer<\/a> for the entirety of the company, including getting a $40 billion guarantee<\/a> from its CEO David Ellison\u2019s billionaire dad, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. <\/p>\n Paramount last week also sued<\/a> WBD for more information on Netflix\u2019s offer and said it would nominate new members to Warner Bros.\u2019 board, after WBD rebuffed<\/a> its offer. The company also sought to expedite the lawsuit, but the court rejected that effort.<\/p>\n Netflix, for its part, had until now stuck to its original cash-and-share offer, enjoying the full backing of WBD\u2019s board, which has resolutely rejected Paramount\u2019s bids. WBD has argued that selling to Netflix would make for a better deal because the streaming giant has the capital to pay, and has said that Paramount\u2019s deal poses \u201cmaterially more risk,\u201d as it would saddle the combined company with $87 billion in debt<\/a>.<\/p>\n Warner Bros. has also called into question Paramount\u2019s ability to function after the deal goes through, arguing that raising such amounts of debt would further worsen Paramount\u2019s current \u201cjunk\u201d credit rating, and has raised concerns about Paramount\u2019s negative free cash flow, which would be exacerbated by the acquisition.<\/p>\n