#disney-negotiations

#disney-negotiations

The Disney Experiences segment just delivered record quarterly revenue of $10.006 billion, and D'Amaro built that machine. The segment generated $9.99 billion in full-year operating income for FY2025, making it the company's most profitable division. A CEO whose fingerprints are all over that result is not a liability.

Netflix's share price was down 30% since announcing the acquisition, while the subsequent announcement that it was backing down sent Netflix stock up nearly 14%. For another, Netflix's commitment to the deal reportedly wavered after Paramount came in with an increased offer and seemed willing to go several more rounds in a bidding war.

"While we are confident that our transaction provides superior value and certainty, we recognize the ongoing distraction for WBD stockholders and the broader entertainment industry caused by PSKY's antics," Netflix said in a statement. "Accordingly, we granted WBD a narrow seven-day waiver of certain obligations under our merger agreement to allow them to engage with PSKY to fully and finally resolve this matter."

Netflix said Thursday that it won't raise its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery's streaming and studio assets, allowing Paramount Skydance to emerge as the winning bidder of the entire Warner Bros. portfolio, which includes cable networks like CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and others.

We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.' iconic brands. But this transaction was always a 'nice to have' at the right price, not a 'must have' at any price. Netflix's co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters explained their decision to withdraw, emphasizing that while they valued the opportunity, the financial terms no longer justified proceeding with the acquisition.

Instead, he focused on the last three years, when he returned to the CEO role in 2022 after leaving it in 2020. When he first came back, the streaming business had lost $4 billion that year, Iger said, and required massive organizational restructuring to "create more accountability." All that effort seems to have paid off, financially speaking. Last quarter, Disney's SVOD services grew 11% year-over-year to more than $5 billion, driven by growth in both subscription and advertising revenue.

Josh D'Amaro appears to be the frontrunner in the race to be Disney's next CEO, and the Mouse House's latest quarterly earnings showed why. Disney's experiences business, which D'Amaro oversees, is the backbone of a company that's being weighed down by the struggling pay-TV business and isn't yet lifted up by its streaming profits. And when that part of the business sneezes, the stock catches a cold.

WBD used pointed language, calling Paramount's bid the "largest leveraged buyout in history by a wide margin" and tying its potential failure to previous big LBOs that didn't close on the initially agreed-upon terms. In its new filing, WBD also described Paramount's financial condition as "not strong," noting that its credit was already rated "junk" by S&P before the "extraordinary amount of debt financing" required by the deal.