Warner Bros. Discovery has opened a narrow window for Paramount Skydance to make its strongest bid for the storied studio, setting up a final showdown with Netflix before shareholders vote on the company’s future next month, and antitrust experts are already raising alarm about what either outcome means for consumers, workers, and the future of American media.
Netflix granted Warner Bros. Discovery a limited waiver under their existing merger agreement on Tuesday, permitting the company to engage in discussions with Paramount Skydance for a seven-day period ending February 23, 2026. The move reignites a bidding contest that Wall Street and media analysts have described as one of the most consequential corporate face-offs in Hollywood history.
Warner Bros. Discovery said it had rejected Paramount’s latest all-cash offer of $30 per share but would give the company until Monday to make its best and final proposal, with a senior Paramount representative signalling willingness to go as high as $31 per share. Despite reopening the door, the Warner Bros. Discovery board continues to unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favour of the Netflix merger at the March 20 meeting, and has advised shareholders to reject Paramount’s current offer.
Netflix’s existing agreement, struck in December 2025, would see it acquire Warner Bros.’ film and television studios, HBO, HBO Max, and WBD’s games division in a deal valued at approximately $83 billion, with Discovery’s cable networks including CNN, TNT, and HGTV spun off separately as Discovery Global. Paramount’s competing offer carries an enterprise value of approximately $108 billion, backed by equity commitments from Larry Ellison and RedBird Capital Partners alongside debt financing from Bank of America, Citigroup, and Apollo Global Management.
NewsGhana spoke with Phillip Berenbroick, Senior Policy Strategist at the American Economic Liberties Project (AELP), a Washington-based nonprofit that monitors corporate consolidation, to understand what is really at stake beyond the headline numbers.
Berenbroick was unsparing in his assessment. The competitive bidding atmosphere, he argued, should not distract regulators from the fundamental question of whether either deal is good for competition. Warner Bros. Discovery, he pointed out, does not need a rescue. “It was the second most successful movie studio in the world last year and HBO Max is a profitable business,” he said. “Just because there is a bidding war doesn’t make a merger good for competition.”
His concern extends well beyond subscription prices. When studios and streaming platforms consolidate, he explained, the pressure to compete on quality and volume disappears. Fewer buyers exist for creative work, which weakens the negotiating position of writers, actors, directors, and independent producers. Content output shrinks, original and risky projects are the first to be cut, and the diversity of voices available to audiences narrows over time. “Over time, all forms of creative risk-taking decline, and content becomes more standardised and more tightly controlled,” he said, describing that trajectory as a long-term threat to an industry whose commercial success depends entirely on creative vitality.
On the regulatory dimension, Berenbroick said antitrust enforcers already have sufficient legal tools to intervene if either deal reduces competition. What matters, he argued, is the willingness to use those tools aggressively and to look beyond public commitments companies make during merger approvals. “Once a merger closes, the company will do what’s best for its bottom line, regardless of the public story it told to get the merger approved,” he said, urging regulators to scrutinise internal company communications on pricing, layoffs, and content strategy rather than taking executive assurances at face value.
The Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix transaction is expected to face a tough regulatory review given Netflix’s dominant position in streaming and the heightened political climate around large media transactions under the current administration. Paramount has argued its rival offer poses fewer regulatory complications, though critics note it too would bring two major film studios and large cable portfolios under a single owner.
With the February 23 negotiating deadline hours away and the March 20 shareholder vote already locked in, the question of who controls the next chapter of Hollywood will be answered in days.
