Lucas Shaw

They have not been speaking for a couple of months.

Paramount kicked off this wholesale process last year when it kind of sent over an uninvited offer, basically, for all of Warner Brothers Discovery.

It then spent a couple of months increasing its offer every few weeks, trying to win.

It lost to Netflix.

And Warner Brothers Discovery has spent the last couple of months sort of trashing Paramount, both sides kind of waging war in public, if you will.

But Paramount has gradually increased more and more pressure, addressed more of the board's concerns, and is now at a point where I think Warner Brothers Discovery feels both out of pressure from its shareholders and just because they're sort of tired of this, that they want to engage with Paramount for a week, see what happens.

And if they can reach a better deal, then obviously the board is going to do its fiduciary duty.

Well, Paramount has been saying for a couple of months that its offer is not last and final.

And Warner Brothers Discovery shareholders have been waiting for Paramount to increase the offer from the $30 a share.

To your point, a representative of Paramount's guidance had indicated to someone on the board of directors of Warner Brothers Discovery that they would go up to $31 a share.

My suspicion is that $31 a share still won't cut it.

So the question is, is Paramount going to go to 32, 33, 34, 35?

And at what point is that beyond what Netflix is willing to match?

Because keep in mind that Netflix still has a deal with Warner Bros.

Discovery and has the right to match any superior Paramount offer.

Well, some of those sort of public hostilities or disagreements that I referred to earlier, I think, are what Netflix is really seeking to attack with its statement.

You know, they are getting very tired of Paramount saying that Paramount has a clearer path to regulatory approval and offers a superior deal.

And so Netflix goes through all the reasons why regulators might be concerned about a Paramount deal, including some of their international financing and the concentration owning two different movie studios.

And that is also a jumping off point for Netflix to argue

that the Paramount deal would be worse for Hollywood because Paramount would be a heavily indebted company that would have to cut billions of dollars in costs whereas Netflix is buying a studio that it doesn't have in-house and so it would preserve most of those jobs.