![]() We are offering a limited year-end sale now that offers you savings of 75% at $1 a week. Don't miss out. Sign up now.Greetings!What a difference a couple of weeks make. If Paramount had submitted the kind of revised offer it presented to Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday during that final round of bid submissions at the beginning of the month, maybe it would be the one sailing into the sunset with WBD CEO David Zaslav instead of Netflix. But we're in a different world now. Paramount's new offer includes a guarantee from Larry Ellison, the billionaire co-founder of Oracle and second-richest man in the world (and, of course, David Ellison's father). It also includes more flexible financing terms and, notably, the same $5.8 billion break-up fee that Netflix agreed to. But given that Netflix and WBD already have a deal in place, this revised offer may fall on deaf ears. WBD said it would carefully "review and consider" the offer, but let's face it, there's little chance the company is reversing course at this point (especially since there's no mention of covering WBD's $2.8 billion breakup fee it would have to pay for walking away from Netflix). At this point, shareholders care less about the source of the financing than the actual number — and they clearly want to see a higher one. “The updated offer from Paramount doesn’t change the fact that WBD’s executives prefer Netflix,” Ross Benes, an analyst for eMarketer, told TheWrap. “The new offer does make Paramount’s case more compelling to the board and shareholders. But WBD executives will keep fighting to maintain the Netflix deal as long as they can. This battle will be prolonged.” It's also not clear if Paramount's revised bid would've made the cut the first time around, especially after it poisoned the well with a poorly thought out attack on the fairness of the bidding process. With the board squarely on the side of Netflix, Paramount will have to do something dramatic if it wants to get the attention of WBD shareholders. Experts believe Paramount may still have something up its sleeve. A quick note to subscribers: This will be the last edition of the year as the WrapPRO Daily Newsletter takes a break. We'll be back on Monday, Jan. 5, to continue chronicling the WBD saga and everything else going on in Hollywood. It has been my absolute pleasure writing this newsletter for you over the last six months, and I hope you've had a blast reading it. Get some rest and enjoy the holidays! Roger Cheng Free for 14 Days – Then Just $4/Week
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