The news: Warner Bros. Discovery is reviewing an amended acquisition offer from Paramount, less than a month before WBD shareholders vote on the long-preferred Netflix deal.

Paramount increased its offer to $31 per share, according to WBD; the company still recommends that its shareholders back Netflix’s offer.

How we got here: The fight for WBD has already been a slog.

• Paramount’s previous offer was already well above Netflix’s. The company offered a $30 per share, $108.7 billion all-cash offer, compared with Netflix’s $83 billion bid.
• Netflix switched its offer to an all-cash bid last month to make the offer more appealing to shareholders and more aligned with Paramount.
• Paramount sweetened its offer earlier this month, adding a $650 million quarterly payment to WBD shareholders if no deal closes by end-2026, covering the $2.8 billion Netflix breakup fee, and eliminating a potential $1.5 billion financing cost tied to WBD’s debt exchange.

Netflix’s scale underscores what’s at stake, with 209.7 million US subscription OTT viewers in 2026, per our forecast—compared with 100.1 million for HBO Max and 94.4 million for Paramount+.

Looking ahead: Paramount’s new bid could persuade Netflix to alter its offer once again. Netflix could match Paramount’s bid as it’s permitted under the current agreement—but Netflix may also have to make some structural changes if it wants the deal to go through.

President Trump requested over the weekend that Netflix fire board member Susan Rice, who served in three Democratic presidential administrations and has criticized the president, or “pay the consequences.” In a deal that’s increasingly political in nature, the added scrutiny around Netflix’s board could complicate regulatory approval and shareholder confidence at a critical moment.

Implications for marketers: The back and forth between Paramount and Netflix is impacting campaign planning.

As uncertainty builds and the streaming market faces possible structural shifts, marketers may pull back from long-term commitments, opting to diversify their buys across more stable platforms until the acquisition outcome becomes clear.