Paramount Skydance wins Warner Bros Discovery bid after Netflix walks away from deal
Paramount Skydance has beaten Netflix to take over Warner Bros Discovery’s storied Hollywood studios and streaming business after the streaming giant refused to increase its bid.The $110bn deal ends a high-stakes bidding war between the two media companies, but the takeover still faces regulatory hurdles and a backlash from critics worried about a rightward tilt in US media.David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount, said: “From the very beginning, our pursuit of Warner Bros Discovery has been guided by a clear purpose: to honor the legacy of two iconic companies while accelerating our vision of building a next-generation media and entertainment company.”In a statement on Thursday evening, the Netflix co-chief executives Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said: “At the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive.”Netflix was given four business days to beat Paramount’s revised offer but quickly decided against doing so.
“We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros’ iconic brands, and that our deal would have strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the US,” Sarandos and Peters said.“But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.”David Zaslav, the president and chief executive of Warner Bros Discovery, released a statement on Thursday evening calling Netflix “a great company” and praising its leadership.Netflix’s unwillingness to revise its $82.7bn offer for the studio and streaming assets of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) means the Ellison family, who owns Paramount Skydance, are now expected to acquire the entirety of the company, including the cable news network CNN.
“Once our board votes to adopt the Paramount merger agreement, it will create tremendous value for our shareholders,” Zaslav said,“We are excited about the potential of a combined Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros Discovery and can’t wait to get started working together telling the stories that move the world,”Ellison, a longtime supporter of Donald Trump, said earlier on Thursday that his company was pleased the Warner Bros board had “unanimously affirmed the superior value of our offer”, which he said delivered “WBD shareholders superior value, certainty and speed to closing”,In response to the potential Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros merger, the US senator Elizabeth Warren told the Guardian it was “an antitrust disaster threatening higher prices and fewer choices for American families”,She said: “What did Trump officials tell the Netflix CEO today at the White House? A handful of Trump-aligned billionaires are trying to seize control of what you watch and charge you whatever price they want.
With the cloud of corruption looming over Trump’s Department of Justice, it’ll be up to the American people to speak up and state attorneys general to enforce the law.”Netflix’s announcement that it was backing away from the deal came after Sarandos held meetings in Washington with Trump administration officials.The merger was expected to receive close regulatory scrutiny, including a thorough review by the Department of Justice to determine whether it posed a threat to competition in the entertainment industry.Officials in the White House have long preferred the bid from Paramount, considering that the Ellison family has a friendly relationship with the president.However, regulatory scrutiny will now focus on the combination with Paramount.
Last week, the California department of justice opened an investigation into the takeover, regardless of the victor.Rob Bonta, the state’s attorney general, said: “It is not a done deal.These two Hollywood titans have not cleared regulatory scrutiny … and we intend to be vigorous in our review.The proposed WBD transactions must receive a full and robust review, and California is taking a very close look.”Ben Barringer, the head of technology research at the investment management firm Quilter Cheviot, said a Paramount takeover would probably not “shake the media industry out as much as if Netflix had been successful”.
Job cuts appear inevitable, with $3bn already announced after the merger of Skydance and Paramount, and a further $6bn in post-WBD takeover synergies revealed in filings..Robert Fishman, a senior analyst at MoffettNathanson, said winning the bidding war was crucial for Paramount, which has lined up $54bn in debt to complete the takeover.“This result confirms our ongoing view that WBD was a necessity for Paramount Skydance while Netflix was being opportunistic,” he said.
Scouting America to reinstate ban on trans children to appease Pentagon
Scouting America will alter several policies at the urging of the Pentagon, including one targeting transgender children, the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, announced on Friday as he pushes a campaign against military support for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.Some of the changes mirror what the organization suggested to the defense department in January, which included discontinuing its citizenship in society merit badge and introducing a military service merit badge as well as waiving registration fees for the children of military personnel.Under Hegseth, the Pentagon has taken aim at the military’s partnership with Scouting America, decrying its historic rebrand in 2024 from the Boy Scouts and other changes in recent years that he sees as part of “woke culture” efforts that he wants to root out.Hegseth said in a video posted on X that, after 2012, the “Boy Scouts lost their way and a once great organization became gravely wounded. Diversity, equity and inclusion, DEI, crept in
European girls aged 13-15 have world’s highest rate of tobacco use for age group
Teenage girls in Europe have the highest rate of tobacco use in their age group around the world, while one in seven adolescents across the continent use vapes and e-cigarettes, figures show.The data, based on analysis by the World Health Organization (WHO), shows that Europe is on course to maintain its status as the world’s biggest consumer of tobacco up to 2030, and reveals “particularly concerning” trends of tobacco use among women and young people.Four in 10 adult female smokers around the world – about 62 million women – live in Europe, while 4 million teenagers aged 13 to 15 across the continent use tobacco products.For vapes and e-cigarettes, Europe has the highest prevalence of teenage regular users, at 14.3% of children aged between 13 and 15
Vegetarians have ‘substantially lower risk’ of five types of cancer
Vegetarians have a substantially lower risk of five types of cancer, a landmark study on the role of diet has revealed.The research, using data from more than 1.8 million people who were tracked over many years, found that vegetarians had a 21% lower risk of pancreatic cancer, a 12% lower risk of prostate cancer and a 9% lower risk of breast cancer compared with meat eaters. Combined, these cancers account for around a fifth of cancer deaths in the UK.Vegetarians also had a 28% lower risk of kidney cancer and a 31% lower risk of multiple myeloma, according to the study published in the British Journal of Cancer
Kinship carers in England to be given financial support in government pilot
Grandparents who step in to provide full-time care for their grandchildren to prevent them being taken into care will be given guaranteed financial support under a government pilot scheme.Charities welcomed the trial as groundbreaking and said if fully rolled out across England it had the potential to transform the lives of tens of thousands of children looked after under “kinship care” arrangements.Kinship carers are grandparents, aunts and uncles, older siblings or close family friends who take on full parental responsibility when a child loses their birth parents as a result of death, a family court order, severe illness or imprisonment.Campaigners have fought for more than two decades to establish financial recognition of the role and personal sacrifices that kinship carers make. Some carers say they have felt ignored and exploited as a “cheap option” despite saving the state billions it would otherwise have had to spend on foster or residential care
Why have efforts to bring in assisted dying law been thwarted?
The attempt to bring in new laws allowing assisted dying for terminally ill people with less than six months to live looks likely to fail. The legislation passed the House of Commons but it has struggled in the House of Lords, and campaigners in favour of the new law have accused peers of “sabotage”. Here is what has happened:The law was proposed by a backbench MP, Kim Leadbeater, and backed by a majority in the House of Commons. It did not have government support but No 10 allowed a “free vote” of MPs that permitted them to follow their conscience and it was not whipped.The bill then went to the House of Lords but a small number of opponents of the legislation have laid down so many amendments that it will not be voted on in time to make it through the current parliamentary session that ends in May
Jersey approves bill to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill adults
Jersey’s parliament has given final approval to a bill to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill adults who live on the island.Members of the States Assembly voted by 32 to 16 on Thursday in favour of the bill, which will now need royal assent before it becomes law.A private member’s bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales is being scrutinised by the House of Lords, with some campaigners accusing peers of obstructing its passage.The bill, introduced by the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater in October 2024, would allow adults with a prognosis of six months or fewer to live to have the option of an assisted death.It can become law only if both Houses of Parliament agree on its final wording
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