![]() We're offering a 2-week trial of WrapPRO for $1. If you’ve been wanting to check out our full coverage, now’s the time. Greetings!David Ellison has submitted a higher offer for Warner Bros. Discovery. And it comes in the Nick of Time. The submission slides in before a midnight deadline amid a raft of headlines that seem to dampen Netflix’s prospects for getting its $83 billion deal done. President Trump, who has flipped back and forth on his involvement, again put this thumb on the scale over the weekend, calling on Netflix to fire board member and former UN ambassador Susan Rice, a Democrat, or face “consequences.” Adding to the pressure was news that the Department of Justice has opened an anti-trust investigation into the Netflix deal, talking to theater owners, filmmakers and producers across Hollywood to gather their input for its review. The timing of all those headlines raises the question of whether momentum is finally shifting in Ellison’s direction. Its latest bid, presumably the long-teased “best and final offer,” is Ellison’s attempt to go for the kill. Notably, the report did not specify an amount for the new bid. Experts previously told our Lucas Manfredi that they expect the offer to come in somewhere in the range of $32 to $35 per share. Keep in mind that Netflix still has the right to match that offer. And that's the thing about momentum: It could change at any moment. At this price level, Paramount is stretching itself financially, and Netflix could match the offer and retain the recommendation by the Warner Bros. board. The question is whether these headlines and the expected heavy scrutiny Netflix would face is enough to drive it away. It could very well be a lot of noise and just the latest turn of this twisted M&A saga, one that could very well swing back to Netflix in the coming days. Roger Cheng
Morningstar Research analyst Matt Dolgin said that the latest developments with Rice and the DOJ are mostly noise for the moment...
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