Lana

Thanks, Carl.

Next up.

Netflix stopped entertaining the Warner Bros.

Discovery bidding war, leaving Paramount to carry the rest of the plot.

Warner Bros.

had two offers on the table — Paramount's bid for the entire business and Netflix's offer to buy just the studio and streaming arms.

The in-demand media firm deemed Paramount's proposal superior — no surprise, since it came with a higher price per share.

Now that Netflix has bowed out, Paramount suddenly looks like the likely new owner — so long as U.S.

and European regulators sign off, that is.

Investors clearly liked Netflix's self-control, pushing its shares up around 10 percent after the streaming giant walked away.

After all, that decision means no giant price tag, no extra debt, and no new years of regulatory grief — all things that would have come part and parcel with the deal.

Instead, Netflix will put its cash where shareholders want it.

The firm said it'll resume its buyback program, after putting it on ice in December when this whole bidding business started.

Netflix does still have more making up to do, though.

Even after Friday's boost, its stock is still about 16 percent below where it was before rumors of the deal first started swirling in October.

Netflix's investors might have been happy to not take this risk this time, but this sort of deal can pay off for the buyer — in this case, Paramount.

A bigger media library lets a company spread its fixed costs out over more subscribers, squeeze better terms out of advertisers and distributors, and stitch its services into more compelling bundles.

Although, with more power comes, well, more power.

The more must-watch stuff that a media firm controls, the more it can charge you to watch it.

That's it for today.