Netflix says Paramount bid 'doesn't pass sniff test' as Warner battle intensifies, FT reports

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Jan 23 : Netflix co-chief executive Greg Peters said the company is on track to win the backing of Warner Bros Discovery shareholders for its $82.7 billion offer for the company's film and television studios, adding that Paramount's rival bid "doesn't pass the sniff test", the Financial Times reported on Friday.

In an interview with the FT, Peters said only a "very small" number of WBD shares had been tendered in support of Paramount's hostile $108 billion offer for the entire company.

Netflix, Warner Brothers and Paramount Skydance didn't immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment outside regular business hours.

Peters said the revised offer had "greater deal certainty" than Paramount's bid, partly financed with $55 billion in debt, and underscored the strength of Netflix's balance sheet, the newspaper added.

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The Warner Bros board earlier this month rejected an amended Paramount bid that included a $40 billion in equity, personally guaranteed by Oracle's co-founder and Paramount CEO David Ellison's father, Larry Ellison.

"Without Larry Ellison independently financing this thing, there's no chance in hell Paramount would ever be able to pull this off," Peters told FT.

Paramount Skydance on Thursday extended the deadline on its hostile tender offer for Warner Bros Discovery to February 20, soon after Netflix revised its $82.7 billion offer to go all-cash in hopes of expediting the deal closure and providing greater financial certainty to investors worried about its previous stock-and-cash deal.

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