Exclusive | Paramount grows more confident Warner Bros. Discovery will drop Netflix bid

Confidence is growing inside Paramount Skydance that Warner Bros.Discovery will jettison its deal with Netflix in a matter of days and reopen a monthslong bidding war for the company, The Post has learned.If WBD does reopen the process, it will have less to do with the recent barely enhanced offer by Paramount — where it didn’t increase its all-cash $78 billion bid other than agreeing to cover a breakup fee to walk away from Netflix – than the worries about valuation and the regulatory uncertainty.As The Post reported last week, the firm known as WBD that controls that iconic Warner Bros.

studio, HBO Max streaming service and cable properties like CNN and Discovery has been under massive pressure to consider the “sweetened” offer from Paramount Skydance.Increasingly, WBD investors believe the nearly sealed, $72 billion deal with Netflix for the studio and streaming service is facing insurmountable regulatory hurdles, while they also are questioning the valuation of the Netflix offer.“We’re going to get this company sooner or later,” said one person working on the Paramount Skydance bid.“The numbers don’t add up and there’s no way this gets approved on antitrust grounds.”Meanwhile, according to one GOP operative with knowledge of the Trump administration position of the Netflix deal: “So far it’s going nowhere with the executive branch.”People inside Paramount Skydance, run by indie movie producer David Ellison with backing of his multibillionaire father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, say they have received no word from WBD on reopening the process.

A WDB spokesman, meanwhile, had no comment on the matter.There is some feeling that WBD is leaking news of a new bidding process, and it might be doing so to protect itself from potential litigation and then settle back on the Netflix offer.Paramount has already sued the company stating that it’s ignoring its superior offer because of a friendship between WBD CEO David Zaslav and Ne...