Feb 24 (Reuters) - Warner Bros Discovery is considering a sweetened bid from Paramount Skydance, it said on Tuesday, without disclosing the value of the deal as the CBS owner looks to outbid Netflix in a heated Hollywood takeover battle.
The latest offer followed a week of talks between Warner Bros and Paramount to address concerns that prompted the HBO parent to reject previous Paramount bids in favor of Netflix's $27.75 per share, or $82.7 billion, deal for its studio and streaming assets.
Here is
a timeline from the founding of Time Inc and Warner Bros to the company's latest breakup and potential sale.
Date Event
1923 Warner Bros was founded by brothers Harry,
Albert, Sam and Jack Warner as a film
studio in Hollywood. It revolutionized
cinema with the introduction of
synchronized sound in films.
1969 Kinney National Company, a conglomerate
that later transitioned into media, buys
Warner Bros-Seven Arts and later spins off
its non-media businesses.
1972 HBO is founded by Charles Dolan with
backing from Time. It was the first U.S.
subscription-based cable network, offering
uncut, commercial-free movies and live
sports, pioneering premium cable
television.
1990 Time Inc merges with Warner Communications
in a $14 billion deal, hailed as a
"marriage of content and distribution",
creating Time Warner, then the largest
media company in the world.
1996 Time Warner merges with Turner
Broadcasting, gaining Cartoon Network, CNN,
TNT and a vast film library of classic
films.
2000 Time Warner merges with AOL, forming AOL
Time Warner, the largest merger in history
at the time, aiming to marry traditional
and digital media.
2002 AOL Time Warner merger begins to unravel as
AOL's value collapses with the launch of an
SEC investigation, prompted by allegations
of accounting irregularities and inflated
revenue reports at AOL.
2003 CEO Steve Case resigns from AOL Time
Warner.
2004 Time Warner sells Warner Music to a private
equity group led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. for
$2.6 billion.
2009 Time Warner fully spins off Time Warner
Cable, which had already been partially
separated in 2007, ending its role in cable
distribution.
2009 Time Warner spins off AOL.
2013 Time Warner spins off Time, its magazine
division, which includes Time, People,
Fortune and Sports Illustrated, marking its
formal exit from publishing.
2016 AT&T announces acquisition of Time
Warner for $85 billion.
2018 AT&T completes its acquisition of Time
Warner after regulator approval, renaming
it WarnerMedia.
2021 AT&T announces it will spin off WarnerMedia
and merge it with Discovery Inc to create a
new standalone media company.
2022 WarnerMedia and Discovery complete their
merger in a $43 billion deal.
June 9, 2025 Warner Bros Discovery announces
it will separate into two companies — one
focusing on streaming and studios
businesses, while the second will house its
cable TV assets.
October 21, Warner Bros Discovery's board rejects a
2025 Paramount Skydance offer of nearly $60
billion, or $24 per share, a source
familiar with the matter exclusively tells
Reuters. The company says it is weighing a
potential sale amid interest from several
suitors.
November 18, Warner Bros Discovery's board wants
2025 Paramount Skydance to sweeten its bid to
$30 per share, valuing the company at
$74.34 billion, Axios reports.
November 21, Warner Bros Discovery receives preliminary
2025 buyout bids from Paramount Skydance,
Comcast and Netflix — who were asked to
improve their offers.
December 1, Warner Bros Discovery receives
2025 a second round of bids, including a mostly
cash offer from Netflix.
December 4, Paramount Skydance accuses Warner Bros
2025 Discovery of running an unfair sale process
that favors Netflix over other bidders,
CNBC reports, citing a letter sent by the
newly merged media company.
December 5, Netflix is in exclusive talks
2025 to buy Warner Bros Discovery's film and
television studios along with its streaming
assets after offering $28 per share, a
source says.
December 5, Netflix
2025 agrees to buy Warner Bros
Discovery's film and TV studios and
streaming division for $72 billion, or
$27.75 per share.
December 9, Paramount Skydance makes a hostile bid for
2025 Warner Bros Discovery in a deal valued at
$108.4 billion or $30 per share.
December 17, Warner Bros Discovery's board
2025 rejects Paramount Skydance's hostile $108.4
billion bid, saying it failed to provide
adequate financing assurances.
December 23, Paramount Skydance amends its offer to buy
2025 Warner Bros Discovery to include a $40.4
billion personal guarantee from Larry
Ellison.
January 7, Warner Bros Discovery rejects
2026 Paramount Skydance's amended hostile bid
despite Larry Ellison's guarantee.
January 12, Paramount Skydance files
2026 lawsuit to force Warner Bros Discovery to
disclose details of its deal with Netflix
and plans to nominate directors to Warner
Bros Discovery's board.
January 20, Netflix amends its bid to an
2026 all‑cash offer for Warner Bros Discovery's
studio and streaming units and secures
unanimous approval from the Warner Bros
board without increasing the $82.7 billion
purchase price.
January 22, Paramount Skydance extends its
2026 hostile tender offer for Warner Bros
Discovery to February 20, seeking more time
to win investors.
U.S. senators
February 3, grill
2026 Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos at
a hearing over how the company's
acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery would
affect competition in the entertainment
industry.
U.S. President Donald Trump
February 5, says
2026 he will stay out of the
bidding war for Warner Bros Discovery, a
reversal from his
comments
late last year.
Paramount Skydance
February 10, revises
2026 its $30-per-share all-cash
offer for Warner Bros, adding a
25-cent-per-share fee for every quarter the
transaction does not close beyond December
31, 2026. Paramount also says it will fund
the $2.8 billion termination fee Warner
Bros owes Netflix if the deal falls
through.
February 17, Warner Bros rejects Paramount's
2026 revised bid and gives the Hollywood Studio
seven days to see if it can come up with a
better deal to buy the owner of HBO Max and
the "Harry Potter" franchise.
February 24, Warner Bros Discovery says it
2026 is considering a sweetened bid from
Paramount Skydance without disclosing the
value of the deal.
(Reporting by Kritika Lamba, Meghana Khare, Anhata Rooprai, and Arnav Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo, Arun Koyyur, Shinjini Ganguli, Maju Samuel and Pooja Desai)
